9 
yellow or sometimes pale purple, and so small that very 
few have been admitted to our flower gardens. Nearly 
the whole list may be comprised in the Wallflower and 
Stock when doubled, the Candytuft, and Arabus Sibe- 
rica. But to return to our yellow flowered Grandfather 
of Cabbages; the Brassica by the sea side. Many and 
many years ago; a craving for green food seems to have 
taught our forefathers to gather his leaves, and carry his 
roots into their Gardens. There, better soil made them 
improve, and the English called them COLE WORTS, the 
Germans KOHL and KRAUT (or herb) the Scots KAIL, 
nay the very garden was named after them the KAIL¬ 
YARD. But further care and careful manurings and wat¬ 
ching did more for old Brassica’s grandchildren. You 
may see his lineal descendant full spread as the CAB¬ 
BAGE (fig. a) (though much too small), who has learnt to 
enlarge his leaves, and multiply them without number, 
forming a huge leaf bud in the centre, which we eat with 
great satisfaction, enjoying the juicy midribs and the in¬ 
fant leaves, folded up tight within, and white for want of 
light. The Cabbage has another brother who grows to 
an enormous size, but who is chiefly used for cattle, and 
therefore called the Cow Cabbage; and another which 
has been brought to assume the richest purple or crimson 
tint, all over the leaves, which are generally sliced up 
small with vinegar, as companions to roast beef. Another 
of the Brassica grandchildren spreads out such a large 
mass of young flower buds, all closely compacted toge¬ 
ther before they are yet developed as to tempt people to 
taste them; and these are what we eat under the various 
names of CAULIFLOWER (6) ( Coleflower ) and BROC¬ 
COLI (I suppose from the old name bore cole) and which 
the Germans allow to ferment and enjoy as SOUR KRAUT. 
But the obliging Brassica family has done yet more in 
our service. Another brother of the old Sea Colewort, with 
the like yellow flowers, but with rough bristly leaves, fin¬ 
ding perhaps that there was no more hope of our eating his 
leaves than of eating a hedgehog, devoted himself to his 
stem. Above ground he produced a great purple swelling 
which is called a KOHL RABBI, and eaten by cattle; but 
under ground the stem was much more sucessful and the 
large white ball, slightly tinged with purple, that it pro¬ 
duced is called a TURNIP and appears as fig. b. The tur¬ 
nip consists chiefly of gluten, with a little starch and su¬ 
gar, and a good deal of water. It has less fat in it than 
almost any other vegetable, which is the reason it is ea¬ 
ten with boiled mutton and beef, and is often given alone 
to sick people, who would be hurt by more nutritious food. 
It is however chiefly grown for sheep and cows, who live 
on it great part of the winter, especially on the large 
kind with smoother leaves, called the Swedish turnip, 
which is very unpleasant to our taste. These coleworts 
of all kinds were the chief, indeed the only vegetables 
much grown till within the last two hundred years, and 
they have been very much improved by being watched 
and cared for. 
Another notable plant of the cruciform order is “the pungent 
RADISH, biting infants tongue” with the beautiful crimson 
underground stem whence depend the little fibrous roots. 
Most country children have had the pleasure of sowing 
their own radish seed , of watching the two cotyledons 
come up, fall off, and give place to the lyre shaped lea¬ 
ves, and by and by of pulling up and washing the roots, 
till their bright red colour shines out so cool and fresh, 
and then of ranging them in rays, round a plate full of 
water to keep them glossy. The sharp pungent taste is 
generally the least agreeable part of the affair. Some ra¬ 
dishes are of the long tapering’ form of that in the picture 
(fig. d) rather a larger one than we should wish to eat, 
others which are called turnip radishes or globe radishes 
are round like a ball. They all have a yellow cruciform 
blossom, and are derived from a wild rough kind, not use¬ 
ful in itself. 
There is a large race of plants with five stamens and two pis¬ 
tils growing in little insignificant green blossoms cluste¬ 
red round a jointed stem, often tinged with pale pink, and 
with large leaves of a long heartshape. These grow wild 
all over England and are called Goosefoots, they are 
wholesome and have much sugar in them, and for that 
reason, one sort, called Fat hen or Good king Henry, used 
to be a favorite herb , in the days when cabbage was 
colewort. 
Another kind , much improved, is still grown in our gardens 
and eaten as spinach, with the leaves chopped fine; and 
another, a near relation, is THE REDBEET, whose root 
appears at fig. e. The leaves of the Beet assume a fine 
deep purple polish, their footstalks are beautifully stri¬ 
ped with shades of pink, and the root is in rays of the 
most beautiful deep dark crimson on a some what lighter 
ground, when eaten with cold meat. It is so full of sweet¬ 
ness that a German Chemist discovered that sugar could 
be made from it, and when in the time of the war with 
Napoleon I. canesugar could not be imported into France, 
the manufacture was begun, and is now carried on to a 
great extent in Germany and France, where the plant is 
grown in fields. The root is taken up, crushed, the juice 
is washed from it, boiled, and left to crystallize into sugar. 
Five stamened and two pistilled, we likewise find another great 
race of plants called UMBELLATE, because their stems 
and blossoms are arranged like the spokes of an Umbrella. 
They generally have large solid roots, straight hollow 
main stems and leaves growing from the root and gene¬ 
rally cut, carved and divided infinitely and very beautifully. 
The stems bear umbels, namely little branches, six, se¬ 
ven or eight in number spreading out like rays from one 
centre, and all exactly of the same length, up to a 
second division of lesser spokes, each of which support 
a very small flower with a long calyx, and five petals, 
one rather larger than the rest, and the outer blossoms 
larger than the inner ones, so as to make a sort of 
border round the cluster. The seed vessels are oval, 
some pointed, others rough and flat. The flowers are 
all white or yellow, and the sole beauty of the plants is 
in general the extraordinary regularity of the umbels, 
the fluting of the stem, and the delicate patterns of 
the leaves. These umbellate plants are naturally full of 
acrid juice and are in their wild state very poisonous, but 
by growing in good ground some of them correct their 
evil qualities, like children under education, and become 
useful and excellent for food. 
One of these is the CARROT ( d ) a plant with white 
flowers and long bracts (or leaves below the footstalks) 
hanging down from each umbel. The leaves are large, 
elegantly cut and curled, and when growing in un¬ 
favourable soil, assume the most beautiful variety of 
colours , some green, edged with crimson, or with yel¬ 
low, red tipped with green, pink with orange etc.; no 
two plants alike, and all more beautiful than any one can 
imagine, who has not gathered an autumn nosegay from a 
field of carrots. The root becomes of a bright orange colour 
and so full of nourishment that, besides being grown in 
gardens for the table, the larger roots are raised in fields 
for cows and horses. 
The wild celery is likewise poisonous, and indeed the GARDEN 
CELERY pi. YII (fig. c) would quickly become so, did 
not gardeners take care to keep it from the light, which 
would draw out the lurking acrid juice and make it un¬ 
wholesome. They earth up the roots as fast as they grow, 
forcing all the leaves to the top, and making the foot¬ 
stalks white, thick and very crisp, so that they are excel¬ 
lent when eaten raw with bread and butter, but even then 
the tops which have seen the light have an unpleasant 
taste which shews that they come of no good kind. When 
allowed to blossom, it has a very small umbel of little 
white flowers. 
At first sight you would not suspect the ONION (c?)of being 
not distantly related to the Lily and yet it realy is like 
it in many points, with the same single pistil within the 
six petals and six stamens that shew it to be an Endogen 
as plainly as does the single bud, which shoots from the 
bulbous root or underground stem. The flowers, however, 
instead of growing in graceful bells, like the “lilies of all 
kinds,” are arranged so as to form a large globe, consist¬ 
ing of the little starlike blossoms ; a very handsome 
cluster, but not one that it is advisable to touch. Before 
blooming, instead of each flower having a private calyx 
of its own, the whole head is enclosed in a thin, veined 
spathe which hangs down afterwards, from the top of 
the hollow stem, which is larger at the^ bottom than at 
the summit. If the seeds are not sown, they will some¬ 
times go on to produce bulbs at the top of the stalk, even 
3 
