—_ 2 
vicinity of Guildford, published a small tract on 
its merits, and made strenuous efforts for its dif- 
fusion ; and, within the last fifteen years, many 
of the principal seedsmen of Britain have grown 
the seed of it for sale; yet it has obtained com- 
paratively little favour, and is found to be less 
valuable than the drumhead and the Scotch cab- 
bages.—The branchy or Cavalier cabbage, B. o. 
ramosa, is merely one of the sorts or forms of the 
common cabbage.—All the subvarieties and kinds 
now enumerated belong to the open-headed or 
borecole group, and are cultivated solely for the 
use of cattle. Some of the true borecoles, also— 
particularly Scotch kale and German greens— 
are occasionally grown in the fields as forage 
crops. 
The Cove tronchuda or Portugal borecole, B. o. 
costata oblonga, has an intermediate character 
between the borecole group and the bolled or true 
cabbages. It is likewise called the oblong cab- 
| bage, the large-ribbed borecole, and Chou vert a 
larges cOtes. It was extensively introduced about 
twenty years ago from Portugal; and is cultiva- 
ted principally in the neighbourhood of Bragan- 
za. Its usual height is nearly two feet ; its head 
is loose and open; its leaves are large and rugose, 
and its costa, cdtes, or midribs, are large, thick, 
and almost white, and branch into whitish veins, 
Its heart or central part is tender, very delicate, 
agreeably flavoured, and free from the coarseness 
which often belongs to the common cabbage; and 
the ribs of its exterior and larger leaves, when 
divested of the thin green parts, and well boiled, 
make a good dish, somewhat resembling sea-kale. 
This plant, however, is too delicate to be culti- 
vated in the fields, and even too tender to be 
cultivated as winter-greens in the garden; and, 
as to at once its habits, its culture, its uses, and 
its economical value, it has a far closer relation 
to cauliflower and sea-kale than to borecoles and 
true cabbages.—The common large-ribbed bore- 
cole, or Chou a grosses cdtes, B. 0. costata vulgaris, 
| holds the same intermediate place between the 
true borecoles and the true cabbages as the pre- 
ceding.—The dwarf cove tronchuda is simply a 
modified form of the Portugal borecole, growing 
to the height of eighteen inches, and producing 
sprouts. 
All the bolled or true cabbages are distinguish- 
ed by the plainness and smoothness of ther leaves, 
and by their habit of so bundling together all 
their leaves except the outer ones as to form a 
compact, hard, blanched, globular or roundly- 
conical head. The drumhead or depressed sub- 
variety, B. 0. capitata depressa, and the great 
round Scotch subvariety, B. 0. capitata spherica, 
are generally esteemed the most suitable for ex- 
tensive field cultivation. The York subvariety, 
B. 0. capitata elliptica, and the conical or sugar- 
loaf subvariety, B. 0. capitata conica, are suitable 
for both the field and.the kitchen-garden. The 
York, in particular, has a very wide range of ad- 
aptation, exists in a considerable number of forms 
CABBAGE. 
or sub-subvarieties, and possesses an eminent 
degree of aggregate excellence. The best early 
York combines all the best qualities of the cab- 
bage,—firmness of bolling, compactness of heart, 
sweetness of flavour, convenience of size, hardi- 
ness of habit, and facility of culture—The red 
subvariety, B. 0. capitata rubra, is strongly char- 
acterized by the deep purple colour of its leaves ; 
and, for the most part, is cultivated only in small 
quantities in the kitchen garden, to be prepared 
and used as a pickle. The Vanack cabbage is an 
old kind, which fell into almost total neglect, and 
has recently been re-introduced to notice. It 
may, by means of timely sowings, be always in 
season; and it makes excellent spring coleworts, 
becomes very early a white-hearted cabbage, 
pushes fine sprouts from the stump after the 
heads are cut away, and is inferior in quality to 
few of the best cabbages. Other generally known 
kinds, and even distinct subvarieties of cabbage, 
are somewhat numerous; and kinds slightly 
marked, obscurely known, evanescent in char- 
acter, or merely local in cultivation, must, from | 
the powerfully hybridizing tendency of the genus, 
be absolutely multitudinous. A good selection 
is the following ;—for field or cattle crops, the 
drumhead, the great round Scotch, the great 
American, and the large round winter ; for pick- 
ling, the red Dutch, and the great drumhead ; 
for early spring garden crops, from April till 
June, the small early dwarf, the early dwarf 
York, the Eastham, and the dwarf sugarloaf; for 
general summer garden crops, the large early 
York, the large sugarloaf, the Battersea, the Pen- 
ton, the Antwerp, the Russian, and the imperial ; 
and for general autumn garden crops, the oblong 
hollow, the long-sided hollow, and the large hol- 
low sugarloaf. 
Almost any soil, provided it be exposed to the 
full influence of light and air, and be not shaded 
or stifled by shrubs, trees, or buildings, is suit- 
able for the growth of cabbages; and many a 
soil which is too stiff for the profitable cultiva- | 
tion of turnips is eminently adapted to a rotation 
comprising cabbages, beans, and wheat. But the | 
most suitable soil for cabbages is a sound, mellow 
loam, of the peculiar quality and texture usually 
designated fat or unctuous, having silex in very 
large proportion, in extremely minute division, 
and combined with a greater degree of alumi- 
nous earth than in most common, gritty soils. 
Yet the unctuousness of fat loam is occasioned 
more by the comminuted state of its silex, than 
by any considerable intermixture of alumina or 
calcium ; for some unctuous loams, possessing 
thorough adaptation to the growth of cabbages, 
have been found, on analysis, to contain not more 
than five or six per cent. of clayey matter, and 
scarcely one grain of chalk. Excellent land for 
the field cultivation of cabbages is either wet 
sandy loam, or a deep clay in a moist and almost 
marshy situation ; but either of these—or indeed 
any description of land for cabbages—requires to 
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