302 
HABITS AND LATIN NAMES OF BRITISH PLANTS. 
particularly serviceable to the wool-combers, for which purpose it is extensively 
cultivated in the Isle of Thanet. The residuum (oil cake) is used for fattening 
oxen, and also for manure. 
Brassica rapa , Turnip, or Knolles.—If the roots be kept in sand, or in a 
cellar, during the Winter, they send out white shoots and yellowish leaves, which, 
being rather sweet and not unpleasant to the palate, are used as salad, when 
other esculent plants are not to be had. But the greatest use of Turnips is 
in feeding oxen, and more especially Sheep, in Winter. The juice, well fermented, 
affords by distillation an ardent spirit, and may be made into an inferior sort 
of cider. The rind is acrimonious. 
Brassica oleracea , Sea Colewort, or Sea Cabbage.—Early in the Spring the 
Sea Cabbage is preferred to the cultivated kinds ; but when gathered on the sea 
coasts, it must be boiled in two waters, to take away the saltness. When 
blanched (Sea Kale), it is an elegant and acceptable Winter vegetable. The 
roots may be eaten like those of the preceeding species, but they are not so 
tender. The different varieties of cultivated Garden Cabbage originate from this. 
Brassica monensis , Dwarf Sea Cabbage, or Isle-of-Man Cabbage.—In places 
where cattle graze, the plant is always eaten down to the roots; and probably 
in poor sandy soil, especially near the sea, it might be cultivated to advantage. 
The different species of Brassica afford nourishment to Papilio Brassica , 
rapce , and napi; Phaleena fuliginosa; Aphis Brassicce; and Chrysomela 
Hyoscyami. 
Briza —From to nod; alluding to the pendulous or nutant position of 
the blossoms. 
Briza media , Cow-quakes, Ladies’-hair, or Common Quaking-grass.—It is 
justly observed by Mr. Knapp that we have no indigenous plant more universally 
known than Briza media ; the Quaking-grass, says this elegant writer, is in the 
hands of every child; and the peculiar simplicity of its habits, and the elegant 
manner in which the spiculse are disposed, “ trembling at zephyr’s whisp’ring 
breath,” render it not unfrequently an associated ornament in the bouquet. If a 
seed be carefully dissected under the microscope, the young plant will be found 
with its roots and leaves perfectly formed. From experiments made by the late 
Mr. G. Sinclair, this Grass appears better fitted for a poor sandy soil than for 
a loamy or moist clayey one, and deserves some attention for such poor tenacious 
soils as cannot be rendered fit for the production of superior Grasses. 
