commonly accepted notions regarding variability and heredity, it 
seems almost impossible that such a plant as the common wild 
cliff cabbage of Europe and Asia could give rise to all our culti- 
vated forms of cabbage. Yet if it is not the ancestor, what plant 
is ? Of all the plants we know, it most nearly resembles what we 
believe that ancestor should look like. Growing on the bleak 
chalk cliffs of Dover or along the Mediterranean highlands, it 
more nearly resembles our conception of a weed than a valuable 
vegetable possibility. One wonders what primitive white man 
could see in this uninviting bitter cliff weed, to cause him to throw 
about it his special care. But on this we can only speculate, for 
the eating of cabbage goes back far beyond our historical records 
and traditions. Among the Greeks, it was held in little esteem, 
but the Romans were very high in its praise, one of them even 
waxing poetic. There are said to be no taxonomic varieties of the 
wild cabbage; but of cultivated varieties— their name is legion. 
For I cannot call to mind a plant that has varied so in every part of 
its structure, from the shape of its root to the crown of its flower- 
stalk. Three hundred or more years ago, a turnip-rooted form 
was grown in Bavaria and a somew'hat similar form is now grown 
in France. In kohl-rabi, the stem has been modified to form a 
meaty swelling; in the common boiled dinner, sauer kraut, and 
salad type of cabbage, the stem spaces between each leaf (the 
internodes) have been shortened and ahead is formed, a character 
present only to a very limited extent in the wild cabbage, and not 
present at all in cabbage cultivated in hot climates. In the 
leaves, variation has given us the red and crinkly Savoy types of 
cabbage. Cauliflower and broccoli are simply cabbages in which 
the flowering stalk is much shortened and the development of 
many closely packed aborted flower buds brought about. In 
brussels sprouts, a large number of small heads have been sub- 
stituted for the ordinary one large head. The Georgia coilards 
are headless like the wild cabbage, as is also the kale and the 
giant cabbage kale of the Channel Islands. The latter produces 
a large enough stem to use as rafters in cow sheds, a heighth 
of 8 or 9 feet being not uncommon. 
Since in most cases we are not even in possession of authentic 
records of when these numerous variations occurred, we are not 
prepared even to guess as to the causes which brought them 
about. Cabbages were cultivated by the ancient Celts of Scotland 
and one writer believes that we brought some of the cultivated 
forms with us from Asia. Cauliflower appears to have been 
known to the ancient Greeks and according to Pickering, it is 
recorded first in 540 B. C. A German writer, Hehn, says it is of 
eastern origin and came to Europe via Venice and Antwerp. 
Almost as remarkable variations as in the cabbage, are known 
in the tribe of lettuces, and although many of you have probably 
trampled the supposedly ancestral form of this vegetable under 
foot many times, you probably have never once associated it with 
the toothsome salad of your dinner course. The common waste 
