November 21. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
151 
condiments. Parsley (Apium Petroselinum), a native of 
Southern Europe as well as other countries, was cultivated 
for its leaves by the ancient Greeks and Romans, and has 
maintained its ground with little alteration to the present 
day. Aniseed (Pimpinella Anisum), now much grown in 
Tuscany, appears to have been formerly imported as an 
article of trade from Crete and Egypt, where it is indigenous. 
The first mention of its culture in Italy is by Palladius 
under the Roman empire. Pit heed (Anethum graveolens) 
and Coriander (Coriandrum sativum), natives of Southern 
and Eastern Europe, are also cultivated in Tuscany for their 
seeds, but are little appreciated in western Europe. The 
Caraway (Carum Carvi), though as common in a wild state 
in Italy as in other parts of Europe, is not mentioned 
among Tuscan products. 
The Crucifera, notwithstanding their importance in 
culinary and rural economy, are dismissed in a few words, 
the Cabbaye, the Turnip, the Rapcseed, and the Jin dish being 
the only ones mentioned. The Cabbage (Brassica oleracea), 
which in some Northern countries constitutes a principal 
item in the food of the peasantry, is almost lost among the 
variety of culinary vegetables of the more favoured South, j 
It is indigenous to the rocky shores of the Mediterranean 
and Black Seas, and has been brought into cultivation from 
the remotest ages. There is, perhaps, no species of vegetable 
which sports so readily, and of which a greater number of 
more or less permanent races and varieties have been 
established in our gardens. For a detailed account of the 
most important of them, the reader is referred by Targioni , 
to De Candolle's well-known dissertation. 
The Turnip (Brassica napus) is still less appreciated in i 
Italy ; indeed the climate appears to be scarcely suitable for 
its extensive agricultural cultivation, and in southern gardens 
it turns out a hard, fibrous, strong-tasting root, which we 
cannot blame them for neglecting. In its wild state it is so 
widely-spread a weed, that it is impossible to say, from data 
as yet recorded, what is its original country. The Rapesccd 
or Colza (Brassica rapa), cultivated for the oil extracted 
from its seed, is mentioned by Columella and Martial. It 
is probably of a similar origin, and is indeed by some 
supposed to be a mere variety of the same species. 
Radishes (Raplianus sativus) find in the South and East, 
climates much more genial to their constitution than with j 
us, and the roots acquire a large size, red, white or black 
(although we have never seen any of those yard-long black 
radishes mentioned as having been exhibited at Moscow), 
but the flavour is seldom so mild and delicate as in our 
gardens. Both the long and the turnip-rooted were known 
to the ancient Romans, and Professor Targioni, reading in 
botanical works that Raphanus sativus is a native of China, 
appears somewhat puzzled to imagine in what remote times 
it could have been imported from thence to Rome. The 
fact is, there are no more wild succulent-rooted radishes in 
China than elsewhere, and any one who observes with an 
unprejudiced eye the varieties of shapes assumed by the 
pod of the R. raphanistrum on the shores of the Mediter¬ 
ranean, can scarcely fail to come to the conclusion, that ho 
sees in that species the wild prototype of our garden radish. 
The innumerable varieties of Cucurbitacece cultivated in 
Tuscany, are reducible for the most part to five botanical 
species, the Gourd or Pumpkin (Cucurbita Pepo), the Bottle- 
Gourd (Cucurbita lagenaria), the Water-Melon (Cucumis 
Citrullus), the Cucumber (Cucumis sativa), and the Melon 
(Cucumis Melo). They are none of them indigenous in 
Europe, but were all introduced in very early times from 
Asia or Africa. They all, as well as some other species not 
known in Europe, have from time immemorial been cul¬ 
tivated all over the warmer parts of Asia, yet some of them 
are positively stated never to be found there wild. Very 
little, however, is known on the subject, for sufficient care 
has not been taken to investigate how far the characteristic 
forms are due to cultivation, nor to distinguish the real 
botanical species, so as fairly to compare them with the wild 
ones. We have no data at present for discussing the 
question, which can only be satisfactorily resolved when 
taken up by some some intelligent Indian botanist, who will 
not rest satisfied with the validity of a botanical species till 
he has traced it to its really wild form. 
The first introduction into use of Alliaceous bulbs is lost in 
the remotest ages of antiquity. They were cultivated as 
objects of adoration by the ancient Egyptians. The Greeks 
had many varieties, of which several are recorded by Theo¬ 
phrastus under names derived from the Asiatic towns 
whence they were introduced, and they were also in common 
use among the Romans. Of the five species mentioned as 
now grown in Tuscany, the Chives (Allium Schccnoprasum), 
a common European plant, already cultivated in the time of 
Theophrastus, is the only one admitted to be indigenous, 
but the Leek (Allium porrum) is evidently a mere variety of 
of the Allium ampeloprasum, which also ranges over a great 
part of Europe. The Shallot (Allium ascalonicum) was very 
early introduced from Syria or Asia Minor, where it is still 
found wild. The Onion (Allium cepa*) will probably prove 
identical with the Allium fistulosum, a species having a 
rather extended range in the mountains of South Russia, 
and whose south-western limits are as yet unascertained. The 
Garlic (Allium sativum), including the Rocombolc (Allium 
ophioseorodon), which is a mere variety, as indicated in 
several South Mediterranean floras, but in some instances 
the evidence of its being really wild is far from satisfactory. 
The cultivated Beets are referred by Italian botanists to 
two species, of which one only, Beta cicla, is admitted to be 
of native origin, whilst the true Beta vulgaris is stated to be 
indigenous to Central Asia, Egypt, and the shores of the 
Mediterranean, to the exclusion of Italy. Moquin-Tandon 
has, however, more correctly reunited the whole under the 
Linnean name of Beta vulgaris, of which he reduces the 
numerous forms to the three principal races: First, the 
Wild Beet, with a slender, hard root, sparingly introduced 
into kitchen-gardens for the foliage, occasionally cooked 
with sorrel to diminish the acidity of the latter. Second, the 
White Beet, poirec or poiree carde of the French, with a thicker 
but still hard root, with enlarged leaves and with a great 
tendency to succulence in the petioles, which are blanched 
like cardoons for culinary pursopes. This vegetable is 
frequently mentioned by ancient Greek and Roman writers. 
Third, the beet-root, barbabietola of Italian gardens, betterave 
of the French, so well known for its sweet and succulent 
root, was first introduced into Italy in the sixteenth century, 
from Germany, where it was probably first produced. A 
sub-variety of the beet-root, with a somewhat coarser and 
larger root, now become so important an article in agri¬ 
culture, was originally put forward under the name of root 
of scarcity, racine de disetle in French, or mangel wurzel in 
German, which latter translation is now adopted by our 
farmers, absurdly corrupted into mangold wurzel. 
Spinage (Spinacea oleracea) was unknown to the ancient 
Greeks and Romans, but appears to have been early used 
by the Arabs, transferred to their gardens from the plains 
and lower hills of Western Asia, where it is now found wild. 
The Moors carried it with them into Spain, from whence 
it gradually spread, in the middle ages over the rest of 
Europe. It has now generally replaced the Orache (Atri- 
plex hortensis), a plant also of Eastern origin, but of much 
earlier introduction, as it appears to have been known to 
ancient Greeks under the name of Atraphaxis, and to the 
Romans under that of Alriplex. 
Asparagus (A. officinalis), indigenous to Italy, as well as 
other parts of Europe, is mentioned both by Cato and Pliny 
as carefully cultivated, and attaining a considerable thick¬ 
ness in their days, and has ever been a favourite vegetable 
among the Italians, who grow it to great perfection ; they 
likewise eat the thin, almost thread-like shoots of the wild 
plant. 
Among sweet herbs, Basil (Ocimum basilicum) has been 
much grown, as a condiment or for medicinal purposes, in 
all hot countries, from the very earliest times on record. 11 
is an annual that sows itself so abundantly over the warmer 
regions of Asia and Africa, that it is impossible to say which 
may have been its original native country. Numerous 
varieties are recorded as produced by cultivation, and some 
other species are grown in India and Africa, but the common 
O. basilicum (which I am now convinced should include the 
O. minus) is the only botanical species known in Italy, where 
several varieties are great favourites in the cottage windows 
of the lower orders. Sweet Marjoram (Origanum Majorana) 
was introduced from Egypt or Syria, where it is still common 
* The supposed principal botanical character, the dilatation and lateral 
tooth of three of the filaments, is often ill-defined or disappears altogether 
in our garden onions. 
