18 
garded as either the original and normal form of 
the common turnip, or as a group of all the va- 
rieties or subvarieties of that species which have 
fusiform roots; and it is either annual or bien- 
nial according to the season of the year in which 
/ itis sown. Its root is comparatively small and 
hard; its stem is about two feet high; its radi- 
cal leaves are lyrate and vivid green, and have | 
none whatever of the glaucous bloom which dis- 
tinguishes the preceding kinds of rape and the 
many varieties of cabbage; and its cauline leaves 
are slightly glaucous and quite or nearly smooth, 
—and the lower ones are generally lobed or cut, 
and the upper ones almost entire. 
The elongated or Hungarian rape, Brassica 
elongata, isa native of Hungary, and was intro- 
duced to Britain in 1801. Its root is biennial ; 
its stem is smooth and between 3 and 4 feet | 
or thinned out and left standing at these dis- 
high; its radical leaves are stalked, pinnatifid, 
sinuate, and hispid; its upper leaves are stalked, 
toothed, and smooth; its flowers are yellow and | 
naturally bloom in May and June; and its pods 
are raised on short pedicels above the receptacle. 
This rape produces a smaller bulk of foliage than 
the summer and the winter rapes, and therefore 
is less adapted to be grown for forage ; but it is 
said to yield a much larger quantity of seeds, | 
and it is cultivated on account of these in its 
native country. 
Garden Cultivation of Rape.—Rape, as a salad 
herb to be gathered in the seed-leaves, may be 
sown at any time of the year when it is wanted, 
and must be raised, in a separate bed, in the 
same manner as mustard and garden cress. 
Plants intended for seed should be selected from 
and must be thinned out to distances of about 15 
or 18 inches ; and they will bloom in May and 
June of next year, and mature their seeds in 
July and August. But due precaution must be 
used that no other brassica is going to seed in 
their neighbourhood, else they may egregiously 
fail to propagate their true or typal character. 
See the article Brasstca. The ripe plants, too, 
should be carefully cut and laid upon eloths to 
dry, or they are very liable to shed their seeds. 
A variety of rape, called the edible -rooted, 
may be cultivated in the garden for the sake of 
its root. It has long been cultivated on the 
' Continent, and has been known for many years 
to a few persons in Britain, and is recommended 
to general notice in the Transactions of the Lon- 
don Horticultural Society. Its root is white, 
and carrot-shaped and about the size of the 
middle-finger, and very thin-skinned ; and it has 
a much more delicate flavour than the turnip, 
and is cooked in the same manner as that root, 
except that it is only scraped and not peeled. It 
is cultivated in the same way as the turnip; but 
it requires no manure, and may be produced at 
almost any period of the year. Any soil of a 
light and poor kind, especially if decidedly sili- 
cious, is very suitable forit ; anda richly manured 
re ee, — 
soil will cause it to grow much larger, but will 
correspondingly impair its sweetness and deli- 
eacy. The main crops may be sown from the 
middle of June till the end of August, and will 
afford supplies of the root till April; a secondary 
crop may be sown in the latter part of October, 
to afford supplies in April and May ; and crops 
may be sown on a warm border in January and 
February,—and again, on a moist north border 
from the latter part of March till May,—to keep 
up a succession of supplies throughout spring 
and summer. But the winter-growing crops are 
precarious ; and the spring and summer-growing 
crops, from the time of sowing till they get three 
or four leaves, must be regularly watered in dry 
weather. Plants intended for seed must be se- 
lected in February or March, and either trans- 
planted to distances of two feet from one another, 
tances; and the ground around them must be 
kept clear of weeds and repeatedly hoed. 
Fried Cultivation of Rape. —The field rapes 
most suitable for being fed off with sheep, or for 
the soiling of cattle, occupy the same place in a 
regular rotation as the turnip or the potato, and 
/serve excellently, in the former case, as a first 
crop on newly reclaimed land or on broken-up 
old grass land, and are also a valuable substitute 
| for the turnip on arable lands which are too wet 
and heavy for that root. 
kinds of soil, and do well for a change upon ordi- || 
nary or prime turnip svils, but are most partial | 
They succeed on most 
to strong alluvial loams, to rich clays, and to 
lands of firm and good quality which have been || 
long in grass. If grown on poor land, indeed,— 
a sowing made in the latter part of Juneor in July, | especially if allowed to stand too thick,—rape 
has a small and woody stem, and is liable to be 
mildewed, and will generally be disrelished by | 
stock and unprofitable to the owner; but when | 
grown on clean and well-tilled land, and when 
properly cultivated,—and especially when rightly 
raised on well-conditioned aluminous soils,—it is 
generally luxuriant, and has a succulent stem 
and a sapid foliage which all sheep relish, and | 
excels most field plants in escaping the attacks 
of insects and fungi, and in resisting the vicissi- 
tudes of the weather. 
The cultivation of rape as an herbage plant on | 
lands already under tillage differs little from that | 
of the turnip. The land should be cleared of | 
weeds and minutely pulverized by repeated 
ploughings and harrowings. On light soils, in 
the absence of farm-yard manure, bone dust 
may be advantageously employed, the quantity 
being the same as for a turnip crop. When 
rape is sown for the purpose of being eaten 
off with sheep, beth the broadcast and drill sys- 
tems are adopted ; but when intended to be cut 
for feeding cows or other cattle in the house, 
the drill system is preferred. In every case, 
however, the drill system is preferable, as ad- 
mitting the operations of hoeing and weeding to 
be performed with much greater facility and ex- 
