I 
TETRADYNAMIA. SILIQUOSA. Brassica. 783 
" .. . 1 » .■■■■ »■W"' >1. I I II ■—1 
with frequently three or four gibbosities larger than merely from the en¬ 
closed seeds. There is a variety with the leaves hairy at the edge. Bios* * 
soms yellow,, numerous* rather small. 
Rape. Cole-seed. (Irish: Praisseagh luih. Welsh: Bresych yr yd. 
E.) Salisbury, contrary to usual authority* has reversed the specific 
names of this and the following. On ditch banks and among com. 
B. May.* 
B. ra'pa. Root a regular continuation of the stem* orbicular* de¬ 
pressed : (radical leaves lyrate* rough; those of the stem more 
entire* smooth. E.) 
(E. Bot. 2176. E.) — Blackw. 231 —Fuchs. 212— Trag. 728—Matth. 435- 
Doc?. 673. 1 —Lob. Ohs . 98. 1* and Ic. 197. 1 — Ger. Em. 232. 1 — H. Ox. 
iii. 2* row 2. 1 —Pet. 45. 7—Ger. 177. I—Ger. 177. 2. 
Radical leaves deep green* large* spreading. ( Pods an inch long* cylindri¬ 
cal* veiny. (Root succulent* white or purplish* tapering or fibrous be¬ 
low. Stem two feet high* upright* branched* smooth. E.) Calyx yel¬ 
low* expanding. Blossom yellow* in numerous elongating bunches. 
Var. 2. {R. radice ohlonga. Ger. R. longum. Matth. E.) Roots oblong. 
J. B. ii. 838— Matth. 436 — Bod. 673. 2 — Loh. Ohs. 98. 2* and Ic. i. 197. 2 
—Ger. Em. 232. 2— II. Ox. iii. 2* row 3. 2 .f. 1 — Pet. 45. 8. 
Turnip. Knolles. (Welsh: Meipen. N.W. Erfinen. S.W. E.) Corn¬ 
fields* and borders of corn-fields. B. April.f 
* The roots of the cultivated variety may be eaten like the turnip but they have a 
stronger taste, and its seeds, which are called Cole-seed, afford a large quantity of 
expressed oil, called Rape Oil, (particularly serviceable to the wool combers, for which 
purpose it is extensively cultivated in the Isle of Thanet. E.) What remains after the 
expressing of the oil is called Oil Cake, and is used for fattening oxen, (as is, with still 
more advantage, a similar residuum from the Lint-seed of Flax. E.) In Norfolk the 
cakes are broken to pieces* and strewed bn the land as manure. It is thought to be a 
very efficacious one. About half a ton is laid on an acre. Mr. Woodward. Cows, goats, 
and swine eat it. (Partridges and pheasants are fond of lying in these crops. E.) 
*f* Turnips are either eaten raw, boiled, or roasted. Pepper is commonly used with 
them. They relax the bowels, and are supposed to sweeten the blood. They are hurtful 
to pregnant or hysterical women, and to those who are subject to flatulencies. The juice, 
well fermented, affords by distillation an ardent spirit, (and may be made into an inferior 
sort of cyder. E.) The rind is acrimonious. 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. (If the seminal leaves be destroyed before the ether leaves appear, the plant 
dies; and, therefore, as the saccharine qualities of the seminal or cotyledon leaves in the 
Turnip attracts a species of small beetle called by the farmers the Fly and Black Jack , 
(Hallica nemarum ,) which does not attack the proper leaves of the plant, whole crops of this 
useful vegetable are often destroyed. Farmers do not consider the crop of Turnips safe 
until the second leaf appears, or, in the language of agriculture, until the plant comes 
into the rough leaf. Thomson’s Lect. Mr. Salisbury assures us that the best preventive 
of the Fly , is to be putting manure on the ground in a moist state and sowing the 
seeds with it, in order to incite the young plant to grow so rapidly, as quickly to attain 
the rough leaf, which is the point of safety. These ravages prevail chiefly in dry 
seasons. Vid. Dickson’s Husbandry. The destruction of the turnip-fiy may also be greatly 
facilitated by a peculiar mode of ploughing suggested by Mr. W. Cowdry, whereby the 
pupa of the insect being deeply buried under the furrow, perishes for want of sufficient sun 
and heat to bring it to a mature imago . The seed should likewise be steeped 24 hours in 
VOL. III. O 
