508 
Though a crop of Swedish turnips looks much 
lighter on the ground than a crop of common 
turnips, it owes that appearance, in a consider- 
able degree, to the circumstance of its root 
being less above the surface; and it largely com- 
pensates any real inferiority in bulk by decided 
superiority in at once weight, nutritiousness, 
hardiness, durability, and adaptation. Nor does 
it merely last much longer in spring without 
running up to flower; but also, when it arrives 
at that stage of growth, it preserves its nutri- 
tious properties far more largely from transmu- 
tation or injury; and even after ripening its 
seed, it retains in its pulp a very considerable 
portion of sweet and nutritive principles. The 
roots, too, are far better fitted for storing than 
those of common turnips; and, when drawn, and 
freed from tops and tails, and either put in wa- 
ter or secured under a light covering of straw, 
they continue for a comparatively long time un- 
altered. Swedish turnips also possess the advan- 
tage of being easily transplanted; so that beds 
of young ones can be advantageously used for 
filling blanks in the rows of either turnips, pota- 
toes, or any similar crops. They require, how- 
ever, a greater depth and power of soil than are 
requisite for common turnips; and succeed best 
upon loamy land of a nature suitable for wheat, 
and must be supplied even then with a generous 
dose of manure, in order to their yielding a full 
crop; for when grown either upon dry, hungry, 
gravelly soil with large supplies of manure, or 
upon good, deep, loamy soil with sparce supplies 
of manure, they are generally poor and feeble, 
and seldom produce roots of any considerable 
size. 
The turnip cabbage or turnip-rooted cabbage 
is the normal Brassica campestris napo-brassica, 
and was erroneously supposed by some distin- 
guished botanists of the last generation to be 
the source or original type of the cultivated 
Swedish turnips. It comprises several subvarie- 
ties; and, though similar in root to common or 
white or very bad Swedish turnips, it is very 
similar in leaf to some common kinds of borecole, 
and bears very distinct differential characters of 
both constitution and habit. Its roots grow al- 
most wholly under the surface of the ground, 
and are naturally so very hardy as to resist all 
injury from even the severest winters; but they 
are by no means so valuable as those of even the 
worst kind of swedes. It is cultivated in the 
northern parts of Continental Europe, and is 
much lauded by some Continental writers; but 
it will probably be superseded in all places by 
some one or other of the hardiest or otherwise 
best kinds of ruta-baga, when the latter shall 
come to be duly known. 
The white Swedish turnip is the common va- 
riety of Brassica campestris napo-brassica, and 
occupies an intermediate station between the 
turnip cabbage and the coloured or true Swedish 
turnip. Its roots are irregularly shaped, and 
TURNIP. 
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have many branches or fangs; and they are inte- 
riorly white-fleshed, and exteriorly white below 
the surface of the ground, and greenish above. 
It is decidedly inferior to even the worst kinds 
of true Swedish turnip; and has undergone little 
or no improvement from hybridizing or special 
culture; and is at present an object of no inte- 
rest to British cultivators; and, when it occa- 
sionally appears among true Swedish turnips, is 
considered as either a degenerated plant or the 
offspring of bad seed. It found its way into a 
considerable number of farms in the years im- 
mediately following the period when the true 
Swedish turnip first became known; and it, in 
consequence, greatly damaged the reputation of 
that plant, and retarded its rising into general 
confidence. 
The coloured or true Swedish turnip is the 
ruta-baga variety of Brassica campestris napo- 
brassica ; and may readily be distinguished from 
the other varieties by the comparative largeness 
and rotundity of its root, by the yellowish colour 
of the root’s flesh, and by the yellowishness of 
the root’s exterior in the part below the ground, 
and the higher colouredness, either dull red or 
purple or dull green or some similar tint, of the 
upper part. The subvarieties of it in cultivation 
are not nearly so numerous as those of the com- 
mon turnip,—partly because it has been much 
less subjected to experiment, and partly on ac- 
count of its inferior plasticity and sportiveness 
of constitution; yet a few improved ones have 
been obtained and established,—some by pro- 
cesses of hybridizing, and others by careful, re- 
peated, judicious selection of plants for the rais- 
ing of seed-stock. 
Skirving’s new improved purple-topped swede, 
was introduced by Mr. William Skirving, of 
Walton Nursery, near Liverpool; and was pro- 
nounced by him to possess all the good qualities 
of a turnip, as compared with all the known va- 
rieties which he was able to collect both in Bri- 
tain and on the Continent, and to yield a greater 
weight per acre of sound nutritive bulb than 
any other variety, and to be also hardier and 
longer-keeping. Its leaves appear to partake 
considerably of the character of those of the 
common turnips, being less smooth and more 
serrated at the edges than those of the genuine 
Swedish turnip, and deficient in that glaucous 
bloom which distinguishes them; so that he 
may be supposed to have attained the size by 
hybridizing with some of the larger varieties of 
yellow turnips. 
Ballantyne’s new improved purple - topped 
swede, takes its name from its original in- 
troducer, Mr. Ballantyne, nursery and seeds- 
man, Dalkeith. 
ple colour of its top, unsurpassed by any other 
variety; yet is more remarkable for the com- 
bination of these qualities and for the smallness 
of its neck, than for the largeness of its bulb. 
It is, for symmetry and sh&pe, | 
equality of size, and the uniform deep pur- 
