the history of vegetable cultivation. 
succeeded each by a single pulpy berry, enclosing 
a single seed. Its root possesses diuretic proper- 
ties. 
CABBAGEH,—botanically Brassica. A group 
of hardy herbaceous plants, of the cruciferous 
tribe. The cabbage, as understood in a loose 
sense, and with considerable variations of mean- 
ing, has very long made a conspicuous figure in 
It appears 
to have been generally and very early cultivated 
by the ancient Greeks and Romans. It was called 
by some of the earlier classical writers, Raphanus, 
from the resemblance of its seed to that of the 
radish; and by some less ancient writers, Coramée, 
from a supposed tendency in it to injure the eye- 
sight. The botanical name Brassica, is simply a 
modification of Bresic, the Celtic name of the 
plant ; the popular name cole or colewort, is sup- 
posed to be derived from the Latin word Caulis, 
and to allude to the excellence of the stems; and 
the popular name cabbage is remotely from the 
Latin word Caput or the old French word Caé, 
both signifying a head, and proximately from the 
| Italian cabuccio or the Dutch Labuys, and alludes 
to the firm head or ball which is formed upon 
the most conspicuous varieties of the plant by the 
natural convolution of the leaves, technically de- 
signated cabbaging or bolling. 
The Greeks held the cabbage in high esteem ; 
and the ancient Romans—in one of those fabu- 
lous flourishes which pass by courtesy for classic 
history—are said to have expatriated their phy- 
sicians, and, simply by the use of cabbage, to 
have preserved their health during six hundred 
years. Both the Greeks and the Romans eat the 
| raw leaves of cabbage, as a preventive and an al- 
leviation of the effects of intoxication. Pliny 
praises the spring shoots of cole or cabbage, and 
says, “I dwell long on this vegetable, because it 
is in so great request in the kitchen, and among 
our riotous gluttons.” Several ancient writers 
ascribe to the cabbage various medicinal proper- 
ties, and assert, in particular, that its juice or its 
seed, taken in drink, is a good antidote against 
the effects of the poisonous species of mushrooms. 
Several kinds of coles were in favour among the 
Romans: those of Calabria were the most hardy ; 
the Sabellian were the sweetest and best fla- 
voured ; those of Cumee bore leaves which spread 
flat along the ground; and those of Aricia were 
tall, and produced numerous buds. 
Some variety of cabbage, though we know not 
which, was probably introduced to Britain by the 
Romans. The Saxons use the word “kale” in 
their oldest extant records; and gave the name 
“sprout-kale” to the month of February, on ac- 
count of the young leaf-buds then beginning to be 
fit for use. Gerard is the oldest English author 
who has written fully on the cabbage; and he 
mentions several kinds, whose seeds were brought 
from the Continent, and recommends that they 
be carefully “set and sown in the same manner 
as musks, melons, and cucumbers.” ‘The bolled 
CABBAGE. 
601 
or firm-hearted variety, which is emphatically 
designated cabbage, was, for a long time, im- 
ported, in a market-state, into England from 
Holland. It was first introduced to English cul- 
tivation by Sir Anthony Ashley in Dorsetshire ; 
yet it very slowly passed into favour with culti- 
vators ; and, half a century afterwards, when Ben 
Jonson wrote, it was still imported to our mar- 
kets from Holland. “It seems,” says a writer in 
the Magazine of Domestic Economy, “that Scot- 
land was still more tardy in receiving the gift 
which now forms a great article of subsistence 
among her labouring: population, it being said 
that the soldiers of Cromwell first carried the 
cabbage into the Highlands. 
acknowledge that there is proof of Cromwell’s at- 
tention to the physical wants of those whom he 
so vigorously governed, yet in this case, perhaps, 
we should rather refer the introduction of cab- | 
bages into Scotland to the colonies of German 
fishermen who settled upon the eastern coast of 
that country at a period much earlier than the 
Commonwealth. The cabbage and open colewort 
now form the principal ingredients of a kind of 
soup to which we find continual allusions in the 
songs of Burns.” 
Cabbage, in the loose and improper sense of | 
the whole brassica genus, has already been dis- | 
posed of in the article Brassica. In its botani- 
cally proper sense, it comprises all the varieties 
and subvarieties of the species Brassica oleracea ; 
and, in its more stringent or distinctive popular | 
sense, it includes only such subvarieties of this 
species as have smooth bolled heads. 
the cavalier cabbage, the thousand-headed cab- 
bage, and some others; a second has been called | 
B. 0. costata, and includes principally the cove | 
tronchuda and the chou a cotes; a third has been | 
called B. 0. bullata, and includes the savoy cab- | 
bage and the Brussels sprouts; a fourth has been | 
called B. o. botrytis, and includes cauliflower and | 
broccoli; a fifth has been called B. 0. caulo-rapa, 
and includes the Kohl-rabi and the chou-rave 
crepue ; and a sixth has been called B. 0. capztata, 
and includes the kinds which are most strictly 
designated cabbages. 
But although we | 
One group | 
of the subvarieties of Brassica oleracea has been | 
called B. 0. acephala, and includes the borecoles, | 
If the first and the second | 
of these be conjoined, and also the third and | 
the last, four groups will be formed with very | 
conspicuous and easily recognisable popular char- | 
acters,—the first loose-headed, the second bolled- | 
headed, the third corymbose-flower-budded, and | 
the fourth turnip-rooted. 
In our subsequent re- | 
marks, we shall include under the notion of cab- | 
bage, the wild normal plant of Brassica oleracea, | 
all the subvarieties of B. 0. capitata, and such of | 
the subvarieties of B.o. acephala as are cultivated | 
in the fields and not popularly classed with the | 
borecoles; and we refer, for notices of the other 
subvarieties of Brassica oleracea, to the articles | | 
Borecoue, Brussers Sprouts, Savoy, Kout- 
Rast, Broccont, and CAULIFLOWER. 
