TURNIP. 
ovate-lanceolate, serrated, about 24 inches long 
and 14 inch broad, rough and lucid green above, 
and strongly veined and of a paler green below; 
its flowers sit close on the axils of the leaves, 
and have each five large, oval, bright-yellow pe- 
tals, with twisted and joined claws, and bloom 
from June till September; and its fruit are 
short, tubular, one-celled, three-valved capsules, 
which open at the top and there discharge their 
seeds. A permanent and distinct variety, 7’. u. 
angustifolia, was introduced about the same time 
as the normal plant, and differs from it both in 
the form of the leaves, and in the size and tint 
of the flowers. 
TURNHOOF. See ALEHoor. 
TURNIP. Any esculent-rooted variety of the 
genus brassica. See the articles Brassica, Cas- 
BAGE, Coie, Raps, and Kout-Rasi. Swedish 
turnips and turnip-cabbages are varieties and 
subvarieties of Brassica campestris napo-brassica ; 
common turnips are varieties and subvarieties of 
Brassica rapa; and hybrid turnips are the off- 
spring of crosses between common turnips and 
other brassicas. The subvarieties of Brassica 
campestris napo-brassica are botanically classified 
into the normal, the common, and the ruta-baga, 
and were all brought into Britain from Sweden ; 
and the varieties of Brassica rapa are botanically 
classified into the normal, the depressed, the 
oblong, and the oil-bearing, and all occur in a 
wild state in the corn-fields of England; but all 
the kinds of turnip in actual cultivation, whether 
Swedish, common, or hybrid, admit of several 
widely different classifications according to their 
shape and colour and other intrinsic properties, 
and according to their suitableness for the uses 
of the garden and the farm, and are more or less 
the result of powerfully modifying influences 
exerted by skill and culture upon the natural 
varieties. 
All turnips are biennials, or have two seasons 
of growth,—one in which they develop leaves 
directly from the root-crown, and form their 
large bulbous stem, popularly called their root, 
and another in which they send up a long flower- 
stem, with leaves entirely different from those of 
the first season, and go through the process of 
flowering and seeding,—and all have blossoms 
and silicles exactly like those of cabbages and 
other brassicas; but many, at the same time, 
exhibit a tendency, in exciting or accelerating 
circumstances, to complete their cycle of develop- 
ment, or to rush to bloom in the first season, in 
the manner of annuals.—The root, or rather 
cauline bulb, of Swedish turnips is harder than 
that of common turnips,—and resists better the 
severities of winter,—possesses a higher propor- 
tion of nutritional principle and economical 
value,—and retains its juices and its nutritive 
properties till a more advanced period in spring ; 
the stem is about one fourth or so shorter; and 
the leaves have a much darker colour, and less 
acridity, and more adaptation for food, and are 
507 
so smooth as to present considerable resemblance 
to those of several of the expanded kinds of cab- 
bage.—The root or cauline bulb of hybrid tur- 
nips, is internally yellow, and is yellow also on 
the portion of the surface beneath the ground,— 
and occasions all the class to be popularly called 
yellow turnips,—but is variously green, purple, 
dark purple, and other tints on the portion of 
the exterior above the ground, so as to occasion 
some varieties to be popularly designated by 
such names as green-top and purple-top,—and it 
possesses a hardness, a resistiveness, and a nutri- 
tiousness intermediate between that of swedes 
and that of common turnips, yet very different 
in different varieties; the leaves are quite or 
nearly the same as those of common turnips; 
and the habit and character are those of Brassica 
campestris and Brassica napus.—The root or caul- 
ine bulb of common turnips is internally white, 
and is white also in the portion of the surface 
beneath the ground,—and occasions all the class 
to be popularly called white turnips,—but is va- 
riously white, green, or red in the portion of the 
surface above the ground,—and is esteemed more 
palatable to the domesticated animals in the 
white-topped varieties than in the green or the 
red-topped ones,—and has, in some varieties, a 
spherical shape, popularly called globe-turnip,— 
in others, a depressed or flattened shape, often 
called Norfolk-turnip,—and in others, an elon- 
gated or subfusiform shape, popularly called tan- 
kard-turnip; the root-leaves, or leaves of the 
first season, are large, rough, jagged, and lightish 
green; the cauline-leaves, or those of the second 
Season, are smooth and pointed; and the stem 
of ultimate growth, bearing the inflorescence and 
the seed, is from 2 to 6 feet high. Swedish tur- 
nips naturally bloom in June; and common tur- 
nips, in April, In the ordinary economy of the 
farm, Swedish turnips are sown earliest, yellow 
turnips next, and white turnips last. 
Varieties of Swedish Turnip.—With the excep- 
tion of the root or cauline bulb, which is large, 
fleshy, and subrotund, instead of small, hard, 
and fusiform, the specific characters of Swedish 
turnip and of turnip-rooted cabbage are the 
same as those of summer rape, Brassica campes- 
iris oleifera ; and these exist chiefly in the leaves, 
—all of which are somewhat fleshy and have a 
dark green colour and a glaucous bloom,—the 
young ones on the root-crown lyrate and rough- 
ish,—and the cauline ones of the second season 
clasping or subcordate, oblong, and subpinnati- 
fid. The root of ruta-baga or true Swedish tur- 
nip has a specific gravity of from 20 to 25 per 
cent. more than that of common turnip, and 
contains a much larger quantity, weight for 
weight, of saccharine matter; it bears the vicis- 
situdes of the weather with such powerful hardi- 
ness, that a rotten individual of it is scarcely 
ever seen; and even when bitten by sheep or 
cattle, or broken by their feet, it so skins over 
and heals as to continue quite sound, 
