SB

ORIGIN AND HISTORY

ARDEN VEGETABLES

TO WHICH IS ADDED THEIR DIETETIC VALUKS

I-NRLF

BY THE

EE\. PEOF. G. EtfeNSLOW, M.A., F.L.S.

F.R.H.S., V.M.H., ETC.

N i ..D ;.'HOM THE journal of tbe IPo^al Iborticultural Society

PUBLISHED FOR THE AUTHOR

BY THE

ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, VINCENT SQUARE, LONDON, S.W.

1912

Price Two Shillings

EXCHANGE

THE OKIGIN AND HISTOEY
OF OUR GARDEN VEGETABLES

THE

ORIGIN AND HISTORY

OF OUR

GARDEN VEGETABLES

TO WHICH IS ADDED THEIR DIETETIC VALUES

BY THE

REV. PKOF. G. HENSLOW, M.A., F.L.S.

F.R.H.S., V.M.H., ETC.

AUTHOR OP ' MEDICAL WORKS OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY '

'HOW TO STUDY WILD FLOWERS ' 'POISONOUS PLANTS OF FIELD AND GARDEN1
' INTRODUCTION TO PLANT ECOLOGY ' ' THE PLANTS OF THE BIBLE,' ETC. ETC.

REPRINTED FROM THE journal ot tbe IRogal Ibortf cultural Society

PUBLISHED FOR THE AUTHOR

BY THE .

ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, VINCENT SQUARE, LONDON, S.W.

1912

PREFACE

THE objects of this book are, first, the scientific one of showing how
plants have varied under cultivation. Thus, the forms of the members
of the Cabbage group have all been acquired from the Wild Cabbage
(Brassica oleracea, L.) of our chalk cliffs. These grow to some three
feet in height when in flower, and take a form like the cultivated Kales
— or, rather, one should say that the latter are the least altered from
the original stock; while Brussels Sprouts and the huge Cauliflowers
are very different from the wild type. These many forms are now
hereditary, for it is the experience of all cultivators and experimenters
that the change of soil, Ac., from the wild state to that of a garden
acts directly upon the seedlings, so that they respond to the new
influences of the prepared and improved environmental conditions by
growing in adaptation to them ; and that if a plant thus altered be grown
for several generations under the same conditions, the new variation
tends to become fixed, arid as a rule does actually become so when,
subsequently, it is more or less independent of the conditions under
which it originated, and is " true to seed."

The second object is to trace the history of garden plants from
antiquity downwards — from, say, Theophrastus, of the fourth
century B.C., whose writings are embodied in those of Pliny and
Dioscorides of the first century A.D. — then to continue the
investigation through the Middle Ages to the sixteenth century, in
which many " Herbals " were written.

Our existing plants will be compared with those described and
figured by the authors of that date.

The " Herbals " were, strictly speaking, medical books, for all
plants were supposed to have their special healing virtues. But in the
" Herbals " of that century we find culinary uses of many plants
superadded to their medicinal values, and it is pretty obvious that they
passed from one to the other by the ' ' drug ' ' becoming an ' ' edible ' '
plant by usage. Thus some are described as medicines, but also as
''salads," showing how the change was made. E.g., the Green
Celery was a drug with many virtues in the fourteenth century ; but by
blanching it became an edible plant, as well as by stewing the leaves —
as is still done in Malta, where it is never blanched. All the so-called
kitchen herbs" used for flavouring were originally medicinal plants,
and have undergone little or no change.

In the later centuries the innumerable drugs became reduced in
number, and their supposed curative properties fell more or less into

>'i v • »• "i < J»

^ cv

VI ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF OUR GARDEN VEGETABLES.

disrepute. We still seem to see the original importance of getting the
store of drugs well secured in the phrase " cut and dried," applied
now to any well-prepared scheme. On the other hand, \\e can well
understand how the expression, " It is a drug in the market," arose
when they fell into disrepute !

With regard to the dietetic values of our kitchen vegetables, 1 follow
Professor Church's little book entitled ' ' Food. ' '* He divides them into —
(1) those of the " salts or mineral matters contained in them "-; (12) the
" carbon compounds, or heat-producers "; and (3) the " nitrogenous
compounds, or flesh-formers."

The value of saline ingredients lies in their connexion with the
rendering solid constituents of food soluble for digestion. They enable
the transference of organic matters from place to place, with the special
and directive localization of the minerals themselves — as phosphorus
and lime to the bones, soda to the blood, silica to the teeth and
nails, &c.

With regard to the important element of nitrogen, the so-called
nitrogenous albuminoids, or " plastic matters," are necessary for the
formation of muscle or flesh, bones, brain, and nerve-tissue; but it is
not an element especially utilized in doing mechanical work. The latter
is the result accruing more from carbohydrates, such as starch, sugars,
oils, and fats ; these contain no nitrogen, but only carbon and hydrogen,
with or without oxygen. These, by being " burnt " — i.e. united with
oxygen — give out heat, coupled with force, which the living being
utilizes in the many processes of life. It should be borne in
mind that none of the last-named substances — and " starch "
includes arrowroot, sage, tapioca, tous-les-mois, cornflour (from
Indian corn or maize), potato-flour, &c. — can furnish the materials for
the building up and repair of flesh, nerve, bone, or brain, which must
have nitrogen. Consequently the whiter bread is, from the large
amount of starch present, the less nutritious it is. In " milk puddings
it is the milk which supplies the deficiency of nitrogen in the sago, &c.
" Starch," however, Professor Church writes, " next to oil and fat,
is the most concentrated heat-giving and force-producing of all the
nutrients."

In order to show at a glance the values of any vegetable, the
percentages of nitrogenous and of carbonaceous elements are expressed
as N : C. This is the nutrient ratio, while N + C is the nutrient value.
With regard to the generation of force in the human body out of
food, Professor Church tells us that, according to Dr. Frankland's and
others' experiments, 1 Ib. of starch or sugar would supply an average
of 2,860 " foot-tons," while oils and fats would give 6,450.f

Of these amounts of force, according to Helmholtz, " the greatest
amount of mechanical work outside the body which a man could be
enabled to perform by the combustion within the body of 1 Ib. of each
would be about one-fifth of the above amounts."

To represent this in a form easily understood, we may say that, if
* Chapman and Hall. t Op. cit. p. 42.

PREFACE. Vli

;i man consume L Ib. of butter, he could utilize one-fifth of 6,450 tons
in raising them one foot from the ground; or, supposing he lift a 25 Ib.
weight to the height of 1 foot, he might repeat it 116,000 times before
the force was all expended.

Lastly, for the reader to carry in his mind some sort of standard,
he may remember that Peas and Beans and other seeds of leguminous
plants have the greatest amount of nitrogenous albuminoids, the Lentil
having most of all, or 25 per cent. ; whereas Potatos may be taken to
illustrate a standard for carbohydrates — viz. 18 per cent. — the nitro-
genous albuminoids being only 1^ per cent.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I.

ROOTS AND TUBERS

PAGE

Artichoke, Chinese. — Artichoke, Jerusalem. — Beet. — Carrot. —

Chervil. — Horse-radish. — Oyster-plant. — Parsnip . . . 1-12

CHAPTER II.
ROOTS AND TUBERS (continued)

Potato. — Radish. — Rampion. — Salsify. — Scorzonera. — Skirret. —

Turnip and Rape . . . . . ... , y . 13-25

CHAPTER III.

GREEN VEGETABLES

Asparagus. — " French " Asparagus. — Aubergine or Egg-plant. —

Broad Bean. — Kidney or French Bean. — Scarlet Runner Bean 26-28

CHAPTER IV.

GREEN VEGETABLES (continued)
The Cabbage Tribe 29-43

CHAPTER V.

GREEN VEGETABLES (continued)

Cardoon and Globe Artichoke. — Celery and Celeriac. — Chard.
— Onions and Leek. — Pea. — Rhubarb. — Sea-kale. — Spinach. —
Vegetable Marrow 44-53

X ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF OUR GARDEN VEGETABLES.

CHAPTER VI.

SALAD HERBS

PA OK

Cress, Bitter. — Cress, Garden. — Cress, Water. — Corn Salad or
Lamb's Lettuce. — Chicory and Endive. — Cucumber. —
Dandelion. — Lettuce. — Mustard. — Purslane. — Samphire. —
Sorrel.— Tomato 54-61

CHAPTER VII.

KITCHEN HERBS

Angelica. — Anise. — Balm. — Basil. — Borage. — Burnet. — Caraway.
— Chamomile. — Clary and Sage. — Coriander. — Dill. — Fennel. —
Horehound. — Hyssop. — Ice-plant. — Lavender. — Marjoram. —
Mint. — Pennyroyal. — Parsley. — Rosemary. — Rue. — Savory. —
Tarragon.— Thyme 62-67

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

FIG. PAGE

1. WILD BEET (perennial). Quarter natural size ..... 5

2. WILD CARROT (annual). Quarter natural size . . . . . 6

3. THE WILD PARSNIP (annual). One-fifth natural size . .10

A. — Third generation of parsnip from seed of wild plant (1847)
cultivated by Professor Buckman. The origin of " The
Student" (£ length).

B. — " The Student " parsnip, twenty-eighth generation (1903) from
the wild plant (^ length and width) ; still one of the most

useful in the trade (1912) li

5. STEM AND FOLIAGE OF THE POTATO PLANT, AFTER CLUSIUS ..,'•'• . 14

6. ROOTS AND TUBERS OF THE POTATO PLANT, AFTER CLUSIUS . . : . 15

7. WILD RADISH (Hoplianu.:* Raphanistrum). (Quarter natural size) . 18

8. LONG FORMS OF RADISH RAISED BY M. CARRIERE FROM THE WILD

RADISH ............ 19

9. TURNIP FORM OF RADISH RAISED BY M. CARRIERE FROM THE WILD

, RADISH . . . .. . ..... . . . . 20

10. WILD TURNIP (Hrnzsic.n r.ftmppstris). (One-third natural height) . 24

11. WILD CABBAGE AS GROWING ON CHALK CLIFFS, S.E. ENGLAND . . 30

12. WILD CABBAGE (GERARD, 1597) 31

13. BRASSICA RAPOSA, ORIGIN OF KOHL RABI (" HISTORIA PLANTARUM," 1586) 32

14. RAPE COLE (Caulnrapum rotundum), AFTER GERARD, 1597 . . .33

15. PEARLY FORM OF KALE, RESEMBLING THE WILD PLANT (GERARD, 1597) 35

16. EARLY FORM OF CAULIFLOWER (GERARD, 1597) . . . . .36

17. THE OPEN CABBAGE COLE (Jlrasxica patula), AFTER GERARD, 1597 . . 38

18. EARLY FORM OF SAVOY CABBAGE, THE " CURLED SAUOTE COLE " (GERARD.

1597) . . 39

19. MONSTROUS FORM OF CABBAGE (i)ALK('KAMP, 1586) 41

Xll ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF OFR GARDEN VEGETABLES.

FIG. PAGE

20. Swiss CHARD OR SPINACH BEET (BURPEE) 46

21. WILD AND BULBOUS LEEKS OF MALTA, WITH CULTIVATED FORM FOR

COMPARISON 49

22. VEGETABLE MARROW, FROM GERARD'S " HERBAL " (MISCALLED

CUCUMBER), 1597 53

23. WILD CHICORY. (One-eighth natural size) ...... 56

24. WILD ENDIVE (FROM A CORNFIELD IN RHODA ISLAND, IN THE NILE,

CAIRO) . . . . . . ' . . . .'.-'''. .57

25. COMMON CUCUMBER, FROM GERARD'S " HERBAL," 1597 . . . .58

THE

OEIGIN AND HISTOEY

OP OUR

GABDEN VEGETABLES

AND THEIR DIETETIC VALUES

CHAPTER I.

ROOTS AND TUBERS.
THE CHINESE ARTICHOKE.

Stachys Sieboldii has nothing to do with artichokes of any sort. It
belongs to the Labiate family, and has six allies or species of the
same genus wild in Great Britain. The present species occurs wild,
and is cultivated in North China, its native name being Tsanyungtzu,
while in Japan it is called Chorogi. It was introduced as a culinary
vegetable by the late Dr. M. T. Masters, F.R.S., in 1888.

The dietetic value* resides especially in a carbonaceous substance,
which reaches 16'6 per cent. ; the albuminoids, 1*5; amides, 1*7; and
water, 78 '3 per cent.

JERUSALEM ARTICHOKE.

" The early history of Helianthus tuberosus may be regarded under
three divisions — a traditional, an early botanical, and a medieval and
modern. Of these the traditional resolves itself into the fact of its
having been cultivated as an article of food by the Indians of North
America before the settlement in that country of Europeans. The
earliest evidence of this cited by Mr. Trumbull is that derived from
Champlain, who, in 1605-06, observed that the Almonchiquois Indians
(of New England) had ' force des racines qu'ils cultivent, lesquelles
ont le gout d'Artichaut.' To this Mr. Trumbull adds that it is to these
roots that Lescardot alludes (' Hist, de la Nouv. France,' 1612), when,
speaking of the same Indians and their country, he says that the
latter contains a kind of roots, ' grosses comme naveaux, tres excellent

* The dietetic values are taken from Professor Sir A. H. Church's book on
"Foods." The nitrogenous ingredients (albuminoids and amides) are the only
ones which make brain, muscle, nerves, bones, etc. ; the carbonaceous, e.g., sugars,
starch, and oils, contain no nitrogen, but supply energy and heat and make fat.

2 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF OUR GARDEN VEGETABLES.

& manger, ay ant un gout retirant aux cardes, mais plus agreable,
lesquelles plantees multiplient en telle fa9on que c'est merveille. '
Following these is Sagard Theodat, who, in his ' Histoire de Canada '
(1636), mentions the roots which the French called ' Canadiennes,
or Pommes de Canada.'

" Proceeding now to the medieval history, or that of the cultiva-
tion of this plant in Europe, it seems to have been introduced into
England very shortly after, if not before, it had attracted the attention
of travellers as being propagated by the Indians in America as a food
product, for in the year 1617 Mr. John Goodyer, of Mapledurham,
Hampshire, received two small roots of it from Mr. Franqueville, of
London, which, being planted, enabled him before 1621 ' to store
Hampshire. ' In October of the same year Mr. Goodyer wrote an
account of it for T. Johnson, who printed it in his edition of Gerard's
* Herball,' which appeared in 1636, where it is called Jerusalem
Artichoke. Previous to which, in 1629, it had been figured and
described under that name by Parkinson in his ' Paradisus,' and he
also mentions it in his ' Theatrum ' in 1640.

" From the last-given date to the present time the Jerusalem Arti-
choke has been extensively cultivated in Europe, but rather as a
garden vegetable than a field crop, and has extended into India, where
it is making its way amongst the natives under Hindoo, Bengali, and
other native names.

" It is very curious that the native country of a plant so well known
in gardens, and in a wild state throughout the length of the Central
United States, and in Canada, should have for upwards of two hundred
and fifty years been considered doubtful. In 1855 Asa Gray's atten-
tion was drawn to the subject from having. received some long, narrow
tubers, which he considered to be Helianthus doronicoides, Lamk.,
with the statement that they had been found to be good food for hogs.
These were planted in the Cambridge (U.S.) Botanical Gardens, and
were found to produce, after two or three years, thicker and shorter
tubers, which, when cooked, resembled Jerusalem Artichokes in
flavour, though coarser. This led Dr. Gray to conclude that,
H. doronicoides was most probably the original of H. tuberosus, an
opinion which was strengthened by subsequent observations pub-
lished in the second edition of his ' Manual of the Botany of the
N. United States ' (1865). Matters, however, did not end here, for
it was discovered that the H. doronicoides, Lamk., as described by
American botanists, included two species, that so called, and the true
H. tuberosus, Linn., and it was not till the publication in 1884 of the
Order of the Compositae in Gray's ' Synoptical Flora of N. America
that H. tuberosus, Linn., was definitely restored to its rank as a sub-
stantive species, and the origin of the Jerusalem Artichoke. I may add
that H. doronicoides differs from tuberosus in the leaves being all, or
nearly all, opposite, sessile, elliptic, never cordate, obscurely crenate,
the rays much broader, and the ovary and achene glabrous.

" It remains to add that H. tuberosus is indigenous in the lake

ROOTS AND TUBERS. 3

region of Canada as far west as the Saskatchewan, and from thence
southward to Arkansas and the middle parts of Georgia." *

The tubers, instead of containing starch, like the potato, have an
allied substance inulin. The chief ingredients are : Water, 80 per cent. ;
albuminoids, 2 per cent. ; gum (known as levulm), 9*1 per cent. ;
sugar, 4*2 per cent. ; inulin, I'l per cent. The nutrient ratio is 1*8,
the nutrient value being 16. f

This plant does not often blossom in England, but I have a specimen
in flower from Hitcharn, Suffolk, about the middle of the last century.
It flowers regularly near Cape Town.

BEET.

It is generally conceded that beetroot is the cultivated form of the
maritime species, Beta mariiim.a, L., or a variety olBeta vulg&ris, L., as
well as probably the species itself, under which Linnaeus groups the
red, yellow, and pale green sorts. He considers the white or pale beet
Beta Cicla, L. The wild slender-rooted plant grows along the coasts
of the Mediterranean to Persia and Babylon, as well as in West India.
It is also wild round the coasts of England and from Denmark
southwards.

The ancient Greek name was Teutlon, and the Latin Beta. Pliny
says the Greeks distinguished two sorts, the black and white, referring to
the dark and pale foliage, as they did not eat the root. " Beet is mostly
eaten with lentils and beans ; it is prepared also in the same way as
cabbage, with mustard more particularly." He adds that " when wine
in the vat has been deteriorated by assuming a flavour like that of
cabbage, its original flavour is restored, it is said, by plunging beet
leaves into it."

In the Middle Ages beet is often mentioned under the names Beta:
Bleta, Sicla, Atriplex agrestis and A. domestica; in French, Arache blanc.
The juice of the black beet was used on the temples for headache.

Dodoens (1559) figures the white and black beets, adding a third
figure, " another kind of black beet," for the sake of the root, which is
" thick and large, like the rape, the taste being between that of the
turnip and parsnip. It is eaten with vinegar, pepper, oil and salt."

That the beetroot was still little known in 1578 appears from
Dodoens' " History of Plants," for he thus writes: "There be two
sorts of Beetes, the white and the red, and of the red sort there are two
kinds, the one having leaves and root like to the White Beete; the other
hath a great thicke roote, and is a stranger among us. ... It is very
well like to a Rape or Turnep, but very red within and sweeter in taste
than any of the other two sorts. . . . The roote of the Romane or
strange red Beete is boyled and eaten with oyle and vinegar before

. . * Sir J. D. Hooker, in Bot. Mag. July 1897. See also Notes on the History
of Helianthii* tubrro.xu*, by J. H. Trumbull and A. Gray (Am. Jour. Sci. and
Art*, 3rd Dec., vol. xix. 1877).

t The "nutrient ratio" is the proportion of nitrogenous to carbonaceous
ingredients. The " nutrient value " is their sum.

B 2

ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF OUR GARDEN VEGETABLES.

other meates, and sometimes with pepper, as they vse the common
parsenep."

Lobel (1576) also distinguished the turnip-rooted as another kind
besides the white- and black-leaved sorts. He describes the root as
" within and without wholly red, suffused with bloody gore, sweeter
to the taste." Lobel gives the following names: — White Betis
(English); Weissert Mangolt (German); Redde Betis (English); Rote
Mangolt (German); Eoode Beete (Belgium).

Gerard (1597) says he received from Master Lete, a merchant,
" from beyonde the seas a bete with leaves very great and red of
colour, as well as the roote, full of a perfect purple juice tending to
rednesse; the middle ribbe of which leaves are for the most part verie
broad and thicke. It grew with me 1596 to the height of viii cubites,
and did bring foorth his rough and vneeuen seede very plentifully;
with which plant nature doth seeme to plaie and sport hirselfe ; for the
seedes taken from that plant which was altogither of one colour and
sowen, doth bring foorth plants of many and variable colours. This
great and beautif ull Beete may be vsed in winter for a sallade herbe
with vinegar, oile and salt, and is not only pleasant to the taste, but
also delightf ull to the eie. f '

That the root was not generally eaten as well as the foliage appears
from the following from Gerard's " Herball " (1597) : " What might be
made of the red and beautifull roote (which is to be preferred before
the leaves, as well in beautie as in goodnesse), I referre vnto the curious
and cunning cooke, who no doubt when he hath had the view therof,
and is assured that it is both good and holsome, will make thereof many
and divers dishes both faire and good " (see Chard).

Of modern varieties in cultivation, one is the White or Sicilian
Beet, B. Cicla, L. It is a native of Sicily, Spain, and Portugal, and
was introduced in 1570. The large White or Swiss Chard Beet, a
variety of the last, is peculiar for its thick ribs. It is stewed like sea-
kale or asparagus.

Professor James Buckman regarded both the garden beet and
mangold wurzel as derived from the maritime variety — B. maritima, L.
The various colours intensified in cultivated, ornamental forms may
be detected in the wild plants. The sugar beet is also a selected form
of the ordinary red-rooted beet.

Wild beet is a perennial (fig. 1), but both it and mangold wurzel
have become biennials by cultivation. Mr. D. Macdonald tells us in
his " Some Farm Crops " that beet "does not appear to have been
brought into general use as an agricoltural crop in England until the
end of the eighteenth century," being introduced from Germany as
mangold, and first raised from seed by Dr. Lettsom in 1786. Mr. L.
Phillips, an experimentalist at Vauxhall, received a gold medal from
the Society for the Encouragement of Arts " for his successful exer-
tions in extending the culture of the variety of beet known as mangold
wurzel, &c." Numerous varieties appeared subsequently. The three
principal varieties now grown as the garden and sugar beets and the
mangold wurzel are all very wholesome on account of the sugar which

ROOTS AND TUBERS. 5

they contain. Dr. Lyon Playfair suggested that a good brown bread
could be made by rasping down beet-roots with an equal quantity of
flour, observing that the average quality of flour contains about 12 per
cent, of nitrogenous matter and the average quality of beet only
2 per cent. The garden beet and the variety of sugar beet of France
are about equal in value in sugar, containing 10 per cent. , the water in
the root being upwards of 82 per cent. Some sugar beets, however,
contain a much higher percentage of sugar. The albuminoids or nitro-
genous matters being only 0'4 per cent., the nutrient ratio is 1 : 29, the
nutrient value 12.

FIG. 1.— WILD BEET (perennial). Quarter natural size.

CABJROT.

This is a native wild plant, Daucus Carota, L., of botanists, and
common everywhere. It is known as " bird's nests " in the country
from the peculiar way in which the umbel bearing the fruit curls
inwards into a cup-like form (fig. 2).

The carrot and parsnip, as well as the skirret, are not easily distin-
guished in the writings of the ancients. The Greeks had three words—
Sisaron, first occurring in the writings of Epicharmus, a comic poet
(500 B.C.); Staphylinos is used by Hippocrates (430 B.C.); and
Elaphoboscum by Dioscorides (1st century A.D.). The Latin writer
Pliny (1st century A.D.) has the words Pastinaca, Daucus, and Sicer or
Siserum. He thus writes: "There is one kind of wild pastinaca,

6 ORIGIN AND HlSfORY OF OUR GARDEN VEGETABLES.

which grows spontaneously; by the Greeks it is known as staphylinos.
Another kind is grown either from the root transplanted or else
from seed, the ground being dug to a very considerable depth for the
purpose. It begins to be fit for eating at the end of the year, but it is
still better at the end of two ; even then, however, it preserves its strong
pungent flavour, which it is found impossible to get rid of." In
speaking of the supposed medical virtues, he adds, "the cultivated
has the same as the wild kind, though the latter is more powerful,
especially when growing in stony places."

Turning to Matthiolus' " Commentary on Dioscorides " (16th cen-

FIG. 2. — WELD CARROT (annual). Quarter natural size.

tury A.D.), under Staphylinos he figures three plants -- Pasiinaca
domestica (our parsnip), P. sylvestris (the wdld carrot, Daucus
Carota, L.), and Carota (the cultivated carrot). This word is found
first in the writings of Athenaeus (200 A.D.), and in a book on Cookery
by Apicius Coelius (230 A.D.).

With regard to the word Elaphoboscum used by both Dioscorides
and Pliny, it means " stag's food," for it was supposed to be eaten by
them as an antidote to snake-bites. It is difficult to determine what
Pliny meant by it, but he compared the foliage to that of Olusatrum,
our "Alexanders," which somewhat resembles that of the parsnip;
moreover, the supposed medical virtues were more or less like those

ROOTS AND TUBERS. 7

of the parsnip. Dioscorides says the root is "white, sweet, and
edible." Matthiolus, in his Commentary on Dioscorides, figures it as
the wild parsnip, called Pa-stinaca erratica. It was called " Baucia
by the herbalists of the sixteenth century.

There are several vocabularies of plants recorded in the Middle
Ages,* in which the plants under consideration occur. Thus, Pastinaca
was called " Feldmora," and Cariota was " Waldmora " in the tenth
century. These Anglo-Saxon words mean " plain or field root." In
the fourteenth century Daucus referred to D. creticus, but it was
also a synonym for Pastinaca: Anglice, skirwhite (15th century).
W. Turner, in his book called " The Names of Herbes " (1548), thus
writes: " Pastinaca is called in Greek Staphilinos, in englishe a Carot,
in duche, pasteney, in frenche, cariottes. Carettes growe in al countries
in plentie."

Under the name Sisaron, he writes, "Sisaron suie siser, is called
in Englishe a Persnepe. . . . Fuchsius rekoneth that our skyrwort or
skywrit is a kind of siser. Persenepes and skyrwortes are commune in
Englande. "

Daucus he regards as " Pastinaca sylvestris, in english wild carot."

With regard to Daucus , it occurs as Daucos (Greek) in Theophrastus
(4th century B.C.) and Daucus in Pliny. Both he and Dioscorides
refer to a medicinal plant in Crete, but not the true carrot. Theo-
phrastus, however, has D. niger, which has been recognized as
the carrot by sixteenth-century writers, and known to herbalists as

D. officinarum or Carotta. Several writers identify it as having white
flowers with a central purple one in the umbel, as is almost always
the case, while the flowers of the parsnip are yellow.

Dodoens, in his " History of Plants," consisting of plates (1559),
figures Staphylinus sylvestris, the wild carrot, Elaphoboscum and

E. sylvestre as the wild parsnip, called Baucia or skirwit in the shops.
By the end of the sixteenth century these plants became quite dis-
tinct, for Gerard, in his " Herball " (1597), describes them as Pastinaca
latifolia, sativa, et sylvestris, the garden and wild parsnip. Pastinaca
tenuifolia, sativa et sylvestris, the yellow carrot, cultivated and wild.

It appears to have been the physician Galen (2nd century A.D.)
who added the name Daucus to distinguish the carrot, Daucus
Pastinaca. Hence Daucus came to be the officinal name of herbalists
in the sixteenth century, and finally was adopted with Carota by Lin-
na3us in the eighteenth century, by which name it is now known. As
stated above, the word Carota appears to have been first used by Apicius
Ccelius, a writer on cookery, about 230 A.D.

Experiments have been made by M. Vilmorin in 1832, M. Languet
de Sivry in 1840, and Professor Jas. Buckman in 1848, proving that the
culinary carrot is easily obtainable from the wild species by cultivation
and selection. The following was the procedure : In 1833 M. Vilmorin
noticed that some seedlings were later than others in coming into

* Enalish Plant Names, by T. Earle.

8 ORIGIN AND HISTOEY OF OUR GARDEN VEGETABLES.

blossom. He saved seed from these in 1834 (all having been annuals)
and sowed them in 1835. A large proportion now yielded thick roots.
He continued the process of selecting from the best roots and latest in
flowering, till at least nine-tenths were satisfactory carrots. They
varied in colour from yellow, lilac, to red. He thus converted a wild
annual into a biennial, the advantage being that the foliage had a much
longer time for developing starch and sugar, while the root responded
in growing so as to store it up.*

M. Languet de Sivry, in 1846, observed that seeds of short-rooted
carrots, when sown in a particular soil, in the alluvial deposits formed
by a small river in France, yielded immediately, during the first genera-
tion, a number of long-rooted plants, either white or yellow, whose
roots were very much larger than those of the parent plants. The
seeds of the best were selected and sown in the same soil. The result
was that in the second generation hardly any roots were found of the
short type.f The quality of the different soils is not mentioned, but the
one in which the long-rooted forms appeared, being alluvial, shows
that it was a light soil. We shall see that similar results occurred
with rape and turnip, as well as with the radish.

With regard to the nutriment in carrots, they contain 89 per cent,
of water, 0*5 of albuminoids, 4'5 of sugar, and 1/0 per cent, of mineral
matter, the nutrient ratio being 1 : 14, and the nutrient value 7*5.

CHERVIL.

Though chiefly used for its foliage, the root of chervil is also eaten,
boiled. It was known to the ancients as Scandix as a wild plant and
Anthriscum seems to have been the cultivated form, according to Pliny,
who only alludes to them for their medicinal virtues. He adds that it
was " this plant that furnished Aristophanes with his joke against the
poet Euripides, that his mother [said to have been a greengrocer] used
to sell, not real vegetables, but only scandixl "

At the present day the botanical name is Chaerophyllum sativum,
Bank., or Anthriscus Cerefolium, though Linnaeus named it Scandix
Cere folium. It appears to be indigenous in the south-east of Eussia
and west temperate Asia.

Besides the preceding, the Parsnip Chervil, A. bulbosus, is also
cultivated for its roots as a vegetable. Chervil was cultivated by
Gerard in Holborn in 1590. The leaves impart an aromatic flavour
to soups and stews. They are also eaten like mustard and cress on
the Continent. The parsnip chervil is a native of France, and was
introduced into England in 1726. The root is white within, and
the flavour is said to be between those of the chestnut and potato.

* Notice sur I' Amelioration de la Garotte Sauvage in Notices sur I' Ameliora-
tion de Plantes par la Culture, Paris, 1886. See also Trans. Hort. Soc., 1840,
2nd Series, vol. ii., p. 348.

t Of. Societe Royale et Centrale a" 'Agriculture, 2nd Series, vol. ii., 1846-7,
p. 539. The above is quoted from H. de Varigny's Experimental Evolution,
p. 203.

BOOTS AND TUBEES. 9

HORSE-RADISH.

Though the edible part of this is sometimes regarded as the " root-
stock " or the base of the stem, it is really the ascending root-
branches which bear a bud at the top; and was so figured by Lobel
in the sixteenth century. The Greek name was Raphanos agrios, and
in Latin, Raphanus sylvestris or Armoracia. Hence, Linnaeus called
it Cochlearia Armoracia. Gerard (1597), under the name -Raphanus
rusticanus. says it occurred wild in several places in England; but
Sir J. D. Hooker says that the origin is unknown, being " possibly
a cultivated form of C. macrocarpa, a native of Hungary." Gerard
mentions this plant as an illustration of the old idea of " Antipathies."
He says " Diuers thinke that this Horse Eadish is an enimie to Vines,
and that the hatred between them is so great, that if the rootes heereof
be planted neere to the vine it bendeth backward from it as not willing
to haue fellowship with it."

The horse-radish in the sixteenth century was regarded as a medicinal
plant, but does not appear to have been used in any other way in Eng-
land, for Gerard says : ' The Horse Eadish stamped with a little
vinegar put thereto is commonly vsed among the Germanes for sauce
to eate fish with, and such like meates, as we do mustarde." It thus
passed from a drug to a condiment.

Parkinson, writing in 1640, also says it was used as above " with
country people, and strong labouring men in some countries of Germany,
&c." He then adds, " and in our owne land also, but as I said, it is
too strong for tender and gentle stomackes."

SPANISH OYSTER-PLANT.

This plant is better known in France, and on the Continent, as
Cardillo. It belongs to the Composite, and is botanically Scolymus
hispanicus, L. It has a white tap-root and somewhat spiny leaves and
bright yellow flowers, being a native of Italy and Sicily. It is described
as having great delicacy of flavour. A long account of the best method
of cultivation is given in " Bulletin de la Societe d 'Horticulture de
1'Aube, " vol. i., p. 217. It is mentioned in some of our seed catalogues,
Mr. Dickinson thus describing it : " This excellent vegetable is more
productive and better flavoured than salsify. . . . The roots are cooked
and served like salsify."

PARSNIP.

We ha ^e seen that the parsnip has been cultivated from antiquity
tc the present day;* but Pliny tells us that it was " grown, either from
the root transplanted or else from seed; but that it was impossible to
get rid of the pungent flavour." It appears, therefore, that the Eoman
horticulturists knew nothing of the advantages of selecting, as is done
at the present day, by means of which the best existing variety was

* See pp. 5-6.

10 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF OUR GARDEN VEGETABLES.

obtained from the wild plant between 1848 and 1850, by selecting the
seed from the best-rooted plants of each generation raised from the
seed of the wild plant.

This was done by the late Professor James Buckman in the garden
of the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester. He collected the seed
from wild plants of the neighbourhood in 1847 (fig. 3). " In 1848
they were sown, and in the spring of 1849 the reserved roots were
dug up and the best put aside for transplanting. Late in the summer
'<)f 1849 the seed was collected, and sown in 1850. The result of the
'second sowing was that the leaves in all indicated an advance to the
cultivated form. Some specimens were much finer than others, of
good size and tolerably smooth outline "* (fig. 4, A).

FIG. 3. — THE WILD PARSNIP (annual). One- fifth natural size.

Professor Buckman called the best " The Student," and sent the
seed tfr Messrs. Sutton & Sons, of Reading. It was sent out by
them, and greatly improved subsequently. It gained many prizes — as
one writer observes, " This is the twelfth year in succession we have
been awarded first honours for ' Student. ' ' Another writer says :
" I had a fine crop of parsnips from the 'Student,' half a yard long and
four or five inches round " (fig. 4, B). The following are some con-
spicuous differences between the wild parsnip and the ' ' Student " : —

The root of a wild plant grown by the roadside in Dorset had a
tough, wiry root, tapering somewhat from the crown. The leaves had
* Journ. of the Royal Agr. Soc. of Eng. xv. pt. 1, p. 125 (1854).

ROOTS AND TUBERS.

11

petioles nine inches long, the leaflets being from one to two inches ; the
larger one three-quarters of an inch broad, and all pubescent or softly
hairy. The sheath at the base of the petiole was one and a half inch
long, the first pair of leaflets being four inches above it.

The leaf of the " Student " is two feet long; the first pair of leaflets
several inches above the sheath. They are oblong, about two inches
across at the basal part, and four and a half inches in "length, and
smooth.

There are considerable differences between the above and the leaf
of the old type of parsnip grown in the middle of the last century. The

FIG. 4.
A. — Third generation of parsnip from seed of wild plant (1847) cultivated

by Professor Buckman. The origin of " The Student " (^ length).
B. — "The Student" parsnip, twenty-eighth generation (1903) from the

wild plant (3 length and width) ; still one of the most useful in the

trade (1912).

sheath of the leaf of this was very large, and reached up to the first
pair of leaflets. These are much broader at the base, making them
more oval, the lower ones being five inches long, the whole length of
the petiole being about sixteen inches. Lastly, the serrations are coarser
than those of. the "Student," which imitates the wild plant more
closely.

As a vegetable in the sixteenth century, Gerard observes: "The
Parsneps nourish more than do the Turneps or the Carrots, and the
nourishment is somewhat thicker, but not faultie nor bad. . . . There
is a good and pleasant foode or bread made of the rootes of Parsneps,

12 OKI GIN AND HISTORY OF OUR GARDEN VEGETABLES.

as my friend Master Plat hath set foorth in his booke of experiments,
which I have made no triall of, nor meane to do."

In 1730 Tournefort tells us that in his day " they are commonly
boiled and eaten with butter in the time of Lent; for that they are the
sweetest, by reason the juice has been concocted during the winter,
and are desired at that season especially, both for their agreeable Taste
and their wholesomeness. For they are not so good in any respect, till
they have been first nipt with Cold. It is likewise pretty common of
late to eat them with Salt-Fish mixed with hard-boiled Eggs and Butter
. . . and much the wholesomer if you eat it with Mustard."

CHAPTER II.

ROOTS AND TUBERS.

POTATO.

THE history of the Potato has often been written, but perhaps one of
the most complete accounts was by " W. S. M." in the " Gardeners'
Chronicle " (April 17 and ff., 1886), from which the following items
are partly extracted.

The first to write about and figure the potato in England was Gerard
in his "Herbal," 1597. He describes the "Potatoes of Virginia,
Battata virginiana sine virginianorum, et Papus." He says that he
received roots from Virginia, and compares them with the former or
" common potatos," by which he means the sweet potato.

The portrait which forms the frontispiece of the " Herbal " repre-
sents Gerard holding a spray of the potato, having leaves, flowers,
and fruit, in his hand, so that it was evidently at that time a
remarkable plant. Indeed, he seems to have first received it only
about ten years before the " Herbal " was published. " W. S. M."
gives an interesting account of the various voyages to America, and
shows that Gerard was in error if he supposed the potato to have been
a native of Virginia — i.e. the island of Roanoke,* not the present State
of Virginia on the mainland.

Before Gerard's time the potato was known to Continental botanists.
Clusius in 1588 had received two tubers at Vienna, sent from Belgium.
Earlier still, by at least one year, it had been received at Breslau, and
was growing in the garden of Dr. Scholtz. Bauhin, in 1596, alludes
to an " iconem suis coloribus delineatum " of the date 1590.

As to the origin of the name Papus, Gerard says: "It groweth
naturally in America, as reporteth C. Clusius." If we have no record
of its actual first discovery, we at least have records going as far back
as sixty years earlier than the date of Gerard's writing, and these
records take our attention to South America. Pedro Ciaza de Leon, in
a work published at Seville in 1553, speaking of the fields and crops of
the villages of the Collao district of Peru, says: " Their principal food
is papas, which are like earth-nuts." Tracing the use of this word in
the writings of Bauhin (1596 and 1620) and of Clusius (1601), it
cannot be doubted, though there is no Spanish authority, that the
potato is really meant, its name being an Anglicized form of Battata.

* So Bauhin writes : " They were first brought from the Island Virginia into
England and thence to France and elsewhere."

14 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF OUR GARDEN VEGETABLES.

For special details as to verification of names, &c., the reader is referred
to the articles themselves.

Solanum tuber osum is the name Linnaeus fixed for the cultivated
potato, but much discussion has taken place as to the correct botanical
species. One called Solanum Maglia (figured in the " Hort. Trans.,"
vol. v. PI. 11, p. 240) and described as S. tuberosum (wild potato), is
the same as that found by Darwin in the Chonos Archipelago. Mr.

FIG. 5.— STEM AXD FOLIAGE or THE POTATO PLANT, AFTER CLUSIUS.
(Gard. Chron.)

Baker, however, does not regard this as the real origin of the potato,
which is a native of Chile and Peru.

With regard to the nutritive value of potatos, they are very deficient
in nitrogenous ingredients or flesh-formers, and can therefore be used
only as a farinaceous addition to meat. There is 75 per cent, of water,
the rest being mainly starch (18 per cent.), the albuminoids only
amounting to 1*2 per cent. The nutritive ratio is 1 : 1-7, and the nutrient
value 22. Sir A. H. Church adds that, according to Frankland, 1 Ib. of
potatos will supply force in doing external work to the amount of raising
124 tons one foot.

ROOTS AND TUBERS,

15

RADISH.

The Radish was known to the Greeks as Raphanos, and to the
Romans as Raphanus and Radicola, " little root." The herb has been
cultivated from time immemorial. Perhaps the earliest allusion occurs
in Herodotus" * account of the building of the Great Pyramid of Egypt.

FIG. 6.-— ROOTS AXD TUBERS OF THE POTATO PLANT, AFTER CLUSIUS.
(Gard. Chron.}

He says: "On the pyramid is shown an inscription in Egyptian
characters stating how much was expended in radishes, onions, and
garlic for the workmen, which amounted to one thousand six hundred
talents of silver. ' '

Pliny speaks of several varieties, but one, the " wild," clearly refers
to the horse-radish. " The Syrian is pretty nearly the mildest and the

* Herodotus was born 484 B.C.

16 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF OUR GARDEN VEGETABLES.

most tender of all, and is well able to bear the winter." He describes
the radish as " requiring a loose, humid soil. . . . Some authors have
mentioned a plan of making a hole with a dibble, and covering it at the
bottom with a layer of chaff six fingers in depth; upon this layer the
seed is put, and then covered over with manure and earth ; the result of
which is that radishes are obtained full as large as the hole is made."
From this one gathers that the radish in Italy grew to a much larger
size than is usual in England. Those for sale at Gibraltar and Cairo
to-day are about eight inches in length and one and a half in diameter,
the leaves being more than a foot in length. He adds that they were
often watered with brine or nitre in Egypt. This would tend to enlarge
the roots, and, according to Pliny, makes them remarkable for mildness
by subduing the natural pungency. He remarks, with regard to the
Greeks: " Such is the frivolity of the Greeks that in the Temple of
Apollo at Delphi, it is said, the radish is so greatly preferred to all
other articles of diet as to be represented there in gold, the beet in
silver, and the rape in lead." He concludes with the quaint idea of
antipathies among plants in his day : ' * There is a great antipathy
between the radish and the vine, which last will shrink from the radish
if sown in its vicinity." We have seen that Gerard refers to the horse-
radish in this connection.

In the Middle Ages the radish was known as Raphanum vel radix or
radio, in the tenth century the Anglo-Saxon name being Wyrt-truma,
signifying " root-holder " or " root-support." In the sixteenth century
we have many illustrated books on plants ; thus Dodoens (1559) figures
Raphanus sativus, the root being swollen at the top only, with a small
tapering end below ; the pods are not constricted, but pointed and ovate.
Turner in his " Herbal " (1568) reproduces Dodoens' figure, and adds
two more; the one is an elongated conical-shaped form, the other the
turnip-rooted, with a very short continuation of the tap-root. He says :
" This kind is more common about Strasburgh and is seldome seen in
England."

In Matthiolus' commentary upon Dioscorides (1574) we have a
decided improvement, the long form as well as the round closely
resembling our present roots. He gives two figures and represents
the pods as having one constriction only, in the middle, more decidedly
in those of the turnip form. The pods of the long-rooted are repre-
sented as having six seeds (in one laid open) ; the pods on the plant are
barely constricted at all.

Lobel, in his " History of Plants," has two figures of elongated
roots, one being more swollen at the summit, but not a true turnip-
formed root. The pods on both have a decided, single constriction.
Gerard (1597) illustrates four varieties. The Raphanus sativus, or
"garden radish," is not elongated, but a short sub-truncated oblong
form; Radicula saliva minor, "small garden radish," is like a very
small one of to-day; Raphanus orbiculatus, or "round radish," is a
large one, nearly two inches in diameter; while the last is called
R. pyriformis, " the peare fashion radish."

ROOTS AND TUBERS. 17

Judging, therefore, from the figures given, we do not seem to have
improved or " ennobled " the radish since the sixteenth century.

The question now arises, What wild species was the origin of the
cultivated forms? Let us continue the research through later writers,
and it will appear that the radish was not derived from China, as some
writers have asserted, but from South Europe.

Parkinson in his " Theatre of Plants " (1640) figures a carrot-like
and a turnip-rooted form. Both have short-pointed pods with a slight
constriction. The one is called " R. vulyaris, ordinary garden Eeddish
(a misnomer from the colour), and the other is " R. niger, rotundiore
radice, the rounder-rooted blacke Eeddish."

The wild radish he figures under " Rapistrum album articulatum,
white wilde Charlocke," with long articulated siliquas. This appears,
therefore, to be Raphanus Raphanistrum, L.

Eighteenth Century. — In Tournefort's " Compleat Herbal " (1730,
vol. ii., p. 466) the pod of the garden radish is well represented
as slightly constricted, striated, and sh arp -pointed ; the flowers are
purple. Tournefort describes R. major, orbicularis vel rotundus, with
white or purple flowers; R. niger, with smaller leaves and deeper
jagged (serrated?). " Parkinson sowed the seed of this species, which
produced plants, some of which had black roots ; but the greatest part
were covered with a white skin." Lastly, R. minor, oblongus, with
oblong root.

In his "British Herbal" (1756) Dr. John Hill first describes
" The wild white radish " R. sylvestris, radice albente. His figure of
this is a two-seeded constricted and pointed pod; the leaves lyrate,
but the segments all connected: " It is found in some parts of Sussex,
principally near the sea-coast. . . . Eay calls it R. maritimus flore luteo,
siliquis articulatis secundum longitudinem eminenter striatis. One
would think that the garden radish was raised from this, but for the
colour of the flower " (p. 243). He then describes the garden radish,
R. vulgaris; the round, black radish, R. radice rotundo nigro; and,
lastly, the long, jagged-leaved, black radish, R. foliis laciniatis radice
longo nigro. The last two are figured, the foliage being very distinct;
but the pods are similar to those of the first mentioned. Hill says that
the garden radish and the last-named are natives of Spain; the round,
black radish, of Italy. With regard to the colours of the flowers of
the Spanish-Italian varieties, the flowers are white with a tinge of purple
or red, some more, some less. The pods are jointed in all.

Taking Miller's " Dictionary as an example, the author mentions
R. sativus and three others as constant varieties, and R. Raphanistrum
as distinct. It is called " the white-flowering Charlock with a jointed
pod." He also observes that " the small round-rooted radish is not
very common in England, but in many parts of Italy it is the only sort
cultivated. ' '

Nineteenth Century. — In the " Prodromus Syst. Nat." of A. P. de
Candolle (1824) we find seven species described, as well as two
doubtful ones. Of R. Raphanistrum there are three varieties, with

18

ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF OUR GARDEN VEGETABLES.

white, yellow, and purplish flowers; while R. mariiimus flowers are
yellow, and scarcely veined.

From the foregoing abbreviated descriptions it will be seen how
all the characters relied upon are variable, as Bentham observes; and,
judging by the figures of the siliquas, they certainly are constricted, but
in that of Tournefort the constrictions are much reduced under culti-
vation, so that it does not appear surprising that they should vanisb
altogether. R. maritimus, being a South European type, will account
for the tenderness sometimes shown in the radish; so that the general
result appears to be that radishes have been raised in many countries
from the local sub-varieties of this variety of R. Raphanistrum.*

t I I ' t

FIG. 7. — WILD RADISH (Raphanus Raphanistrum), Quarter natural size.

With regard to the two principal forms of the root of the garden
radish, the long, spindle-shaped and the globular turnip-formed,
M. Carriere describes his experiments with the wild species Raphanus
Raphanistrum, L. (fig. 7), growing them from seed in two very
different soils during five consecutive years. Some were grown at Paris
in a light soil, others in the country in a firmer or strong soil, argilla-
ceous and calcareous. At Paris the long form prevailed almost entirely.
It was just the contrary elsewhere; the tuberous form was most abun-

* The last seven paragraphs are quoted from the Gardeners' Chronicle,
June 25, 1898, p. 389.

ROOTS AND TUBERS.

19

dant. At Paris the colour was rose or white ; while the others were of a
deep violet, and some had a pronounced brown colour or were nearly
black, like the Alsace Navew ; but there were pretty well all colours and

forms * (figs. 8, 9).

EAMPION.

Campanula Rapunculus, L., is a native of England, but considered
as doubtfully wild by Hooker. It occurs from Denmark southwards,
in N. Africa and Siberia. Whether this root was known to the ancients
is not certain. Dodoens (1559) says the Greek name was Gongule

FIG. 8. — LONG FORMS OF RADISH RAISED BY M. CARRIERE FROM THE
WILD RADISH.

agria, but this could hardly mean anything else than the wild turnip,
or probably a degenerate form of the garden turnip, as the name
implies a " round " root. Aristophanes uses the word gongulis, but
the plant cannot now be identified. In the sixteenth century we find
two distinct plants called Eampion : one was known as the greater
Rapuntium, now recognized as Phyteuma spicata, L., and the smaller
was Rapunlium parvum. This is the true rampion, Campanula
Rapunculus, L. Their use was described as being especially service-
able in salads, being boiled and eaten with oil, vinegar, and pepper.

* Origine des Plantes Domestiques demontrde par la Culture du Radis
Sauvage, 1869.

C 2

20 OKI GIN AND HISTORY OF OUR GARDEN VEGETABLES.

SALSIFY.

Tragopogon porrifolius, L., was cultivated much more in the
sixteenth and following centuries than to-day. It occurs wild in North
and Middle Europe, as well as in Greece, Dalmatia, and Italy. The
name is derived from the Italian word sassefrica, evidently the same as
saxifraga.

The sixteenth-century botanists all describe the goafs-beard
(T. pratensis, L.) and refer to the Greek names Tragopogon and
Come, and the Latin Barba hirci. Dodoens has a figure and adds:

FIG. 9. — TURNIP FORM OF RADISH RAISED BY M. CARRIERS FROM THE
WILD RADISH.

" There are two kinds, one yellow, the other with a purple flower "
(1559). Gerard appears to be the first to figure the salsify as T. pur-
pureus, purple goafs-beard. He describes both species as having
the same medicinal virtues. With regard to the use as a vegetable,
he says of the roots: "Boiled in water untill they be tender, and
buttered as Parsnips and Carrots are a most pleasant meate and whole-
some, in delicate taste farre surpassing either Parsnip or Carrot."
Gerard observes though not wild in England it was cultivated " in
gardens for the beautie of the flowers, almost every where."

SCOEZONEBA.

Scorzonera hispanica, L., or viper's grass, was introduced from
Spain in 1576, and Gerard appears to be the first writer who alludes
to it. He says : " Viper's grasse is called of the Spaniards Scorzonera,
which soundeth in Latine Viperaria, or Viperina, or Serpentaria, so

ROOTS AND TUBERS. 21

called because it is accounted to be of force and efficacie against the
poisons of Vipers and Serpents, for Vipera, or a viper, is called in
Spanish Scurzo. In English we may call it Scorzoner after the
Spanish name, or Viper's Grasse."

Parkinson, writing in 1640, says of it: "The roote is as thicke
as three fingers or more, but much shorter than in any other kinds
[of Scorzonera ; he describes six in all] , blackish without, and some-
what whitish within, yeelding very little milke, when it is broken."
The plant is said to be " wild in Europe, from Spain, where it abounds,
the South of France, and Germany, to the region of the Caucasus,
and perhaps even as far as Siberia, but it is wanting in Sicily and
Greece. In several parts of Germany the species is probably
naturalized from cultivation."*

With regard to the use of the root the following has been given
as to its esculent and medicinal values. " The taste is sweetish and
agreeable, something like that of the roots of certain umbelliferous
plants or the common hazel-nut, and a variety with a paler skin has
a still more agreeable flavour. Its effects on the digestive organs are
to increase the flow of gastric juice and bile. It is said that its
antibilious power is scarcely inferior to that of dandelion, and it is
on this account one of the best remedies in cases of indigestion. These
good effects, however, cannot be insured unless the root is properly
cooked, as its medicinal qualities may be quickly destroyed. It should
be cut as little as possible, and washed, not scraped, as the abundant
milky juice, on which its salutary properties depend, then escapes.
After boiling for about twenty or twenty-five minutes, or till it is quite
soft (rather more salt being added to the water than usual in cooking
vegetables), it is to be taken out and peeled, as the dark skin then
comes off as readily as that of a boiled potato. When fresh from the
garden a quarter of an hour may be sufficient, which is of some
importance to the invalid to know; because after it has become quite
soft all further boiling is injurious to its medicinal qualities, and soon
destroys them; but when it has lain out of the ground for a long time
and become hardened, it may require twice the time to boil — the rule
then is, to boil until it be soft. It is usually eaten in the same way
as asparagus, which is the preferable mode for the invalid. It is one
of the most agreeable of vegetables in point of flavour." f

This root shows very well how a drug-plant passed into a culinary
vegetable; such being the origin of many of the latter.

SKIBRET.

This name has been applied to the Greek Sisaron and the Latin
Siser or Sisarum; but Linnaeus placed it under the genus Sium as
S. Sisarum (eighteenth century). In the fourteenth century " Skir-
whit " and " Baucea " were both applied to the wild Parsnip. The first
question is, What did the ancients mean by Siser or Sisarum ? Sisaron

* Origin of Cultivated Plants, A. de Candolle, p. 44.
t Treasury of Botany, s.v. p. 1041.

22 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF OUR GARDEN VEGETABLES.

is first mentioned by Epicharmus, a Syracusan poet, 500 B.C. Pliny
(first century) says " the wild Sisarum is very like the cultivated kind,"
and attributes certain medicinal virtues to it, equally applicable to the
parsnip. As an edible vegetable, Pliny says that " it had its reputation
established by the Emperor Tiberius, who demanded a supply of it every
year from Germany. It is at Gelduba, a fortress situate on the banks
of the Ehenus, that the finest are grown, from which it would appear
that they thrive best in a cold climate." He then adds a feature which
at once distinguishes the Siser from the modern skirret. " There is a
string running through the whole length of the skirret, which is drawn
out after it is boiled." This string is characteristic of many wild roots,
but is not in the cultivated ones. Moreover, he implies a single root,
not a cluster of small ones, which the true skirret of to-day has. Pliny
then proceeds: " Still, for all this [i.e. boiling it] a considerable pro-
portion of its natural pungency is retained. . . . The larger parsnip has
also a similar string inside, but only when it is a year old." When
speaking of the Pastinaca or Parsnip, he makes the same remark that
after being cooked " it is found quite impossible to get rid of the pungent
flavour."

Coming to the sixteenth century, Matthiolus, in his commentary
of Dioscorides (1574), figures the modern skirret with numerous knotted
roots, and leaves very like those of a parsnip, under Siser, but adds a
second kind which represents the Carrot. He confesses that "it is
most difficult to show what the true and legitimate Siser was."

Dodoens (1559) had already figured the skirret as the Siser of Pliny,
and says it was known to the herbalists as Serulum, Seruilla, or
"chervil." This name perhaps arose by mistake from some re-
semblance of the foliage to that of the true Chervil (Cere folium). In
France it was then, and still is, called " chervis."

Dodoens, in describing the skirret, says the leaves resemble those
of the parsnip, with " seeds somewhat broad." That would apply to
the Parsnip ; but he adds, " but the Skirwirt that groweth in my garden
hath a little long crooked seede." This agrees with the seed of the
true skirret. He finally adds: "The roots are white, of a finger's
length, divers hanging together." He thus seems to blend the parsnip
with the true skirret, or Slum Sisarum.

Lobel, in his "History of Plants " (1756), figures the skirret as
having numerous tuberous roots and leaves like those of the parsnip, as
Sisarum, adding the Spanish name Cherivia. He describes the taste
as like, but more pleasant than, that of parsnips.

Gerard (1597) figures Sisarum, and calls it " Skerrets."

With regard to the country whence the skirret came, none of the
sixteenth-century herbalists appear to know. Gerard only observes that
it was cultivated in gardens. He seems to think it was the same plant
as Pliny's Sisarum or Siser, for he says : " This is that Siser, or Skirret,
which Tiberius commanded to be conueied vnto him from Gelduba."

Lastly, Bauhin (1672) still regarded Sisarum as identical with the
Roman plant.

ROOTS AND TUBERS. 23

The conclusion to be drawn from the above doubtful notices is
that Siser and Sisarum were Eoman names for some variety of
parsnip, and that the true skirret was unknown before the sixteenth
century.

To come to more modern days, Tournefort, in his " Compleat
Herbal " (1719), figures the skirret with numerous spindle-shaped
roots, and says he knows but one species, Sisarum Germanorum, which
Caesalpinius had regarded as synonymous with Elaphoboscum (fifteenth
century). But as it has " white umbels of sweet-smelling flowers,"
it could not be the parsnip.

Linnaeus, in 1754, is the first to cast doubts upon the origin of the
skirret. He includes it under the genus Slum, one species of which,
S. latifolium, is our British water parsnip, resembling the parsnip in
foliage, but it is not edible, being slightly poisonous. Linnaeus, how-
ever, adopted the old Latin name Sisarum as specific, but adds,
" Habitat in China."

Alphonse de Candolle, in his " Origin of Cultivated Plants," dis-
cusses the question of the origin of the skirret, but thinks it doubtful
as a native of China, observing that Maximowicz recognizes only the
Altaic region of Siberia and North of Persia as the home of the wild
Sium Sisarum, L. He observes : "It came, perhaps, from Siberia into
Eussia, and thence into Germany. . . I cannot find any Eussian name,
but the Germans have original names, Krizel or Grizel, Gorlein or
Gierlein, which indicate an ancient cultivation, more than the ordinary
name Zuckerwurzel or sugar-root. The Danish name has the same
meaning — sokerot, whence the English Skirret."

MM. A. Paillieux and D. Bois in " Le Potager d'un Curieux:
Histoire, Culture et Usages," observe that Jacques and Herincq give
the date 1548 for the introduction of the chervis or skirret into Europe.
If so, then the date of Dodoens' figure 1559 and the several countries in
which he says it was then cultivated (unless it be confounded with
the parsnip) would seem to indicate too short a time for its diffusion.
The mystery of its origin and introduction, therefore, still remains
unsolved.

THE TURNIP AND THE EAPE.

These two plants are only different forms or varieties of the same
species known as Brassica campestris, L. (fig. 10) — B. Napus, L (?),
being the Eape; B. Rutabaga, L., the Swede; B. Rapa, L., the globular
Turnip and the spindle-shaped Navew. Another variety is called
oleifera, the seeds of which supply rape and colza oils.

Both kinds were well known to the ancients. The Greeks had two
words Gongule, which was the turnip, for the word means "round,"
and Aristophanes speaks of Gongule memagmene, which may be trans-
lated "mashed turnips." Theophrastus and Dioscorides have the
name Bounias, which was recognized in the sixteenth century as the
rape and called Napus sativus ; but someone has written in MS. of that
century, " The little Navew."

24

ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF OUR GARDEN VEGETABLES.

Pliny regards the rape and turnip as the same, for he observes :
" The Greeks have distinguished two principal species of rape, the
male and the female, and have discovered a method of obtaining
them both from the same seed; for when it is sown thick, or in a hard,
cloggy soil, the produce will be male." Elsewhere he distinguishes the
forms, saying: "Medical men call those which are round 'male,'
while those which are more elongated are known as ' female ' rape;
the last are superior in sweetness, and better for keeping, but by
successive sowings they are changed into male rape." It is clear that
the male is the " turnip " and the long-rooted the " rape."*

FIG. 10. — WILD TURNIP (Brassica campestris). One-third natural height.

Dodoens calls the turnip the ' ' round rape, ' ' but adds a chapter on
the " long rape," or navew, of which " there are two sorts, tame and
wilde. " These correspond to his plates of Napus sativus and Napus
sylvestris. ' The roote of the Navew gentle or garden long Eape is
very long and thicke, in all things else like the Turnep or round Eape. "
He adds: " The Navew gentle is much so wen in France, especially
about Paris " (1559).

Turner repeats the above and adds : ' ' The long-rooted rape groweth
very plenteously a little from Linne, where as much oyle is made of
the sede of it " (1568). Besides supplying oil, Gerard adds that the
seed " feedeth singing birds " (1597).

With regard to field turnips, Mr. Macdonald says: " It appears to
have been brought over from Holland and grown on the Marquis

* The reader is referred to the Radish and Carrot for similar instances of
change of form, according to the stiffness or looseness of the soil.

BOOTS AND TUBERS. 25

Townshend's estate at Eainham, Norfolk, in 1730. ... It has been
evolved from the common rough-leaved rape, with no semblance of a
bulb." Several varieties existed at the beginning of the nineteenth
century, such as the White-fleshed from Flanders, and the Yellow-
fleshed, probably derived from the Yellow Tankard, but altered by
cultivation. The Swede was first introduced into Scotland in 1781, and
called " Euta Baga " at Gottenberg, whence the seed was sent, and
supposed to have originated from the smooth-leaved rape.

With regard to the value of the turnip, Prof. Church writes : " The
turnip, like many others of the same family, contains a pungent
essential oil. The root is very watery and contains but little nourish-
ment. It has no starch but, instead, a jelly-like matter (pectose).
Turnips contain no more than '5 per cent, of flesh - f ormers. " The
proportions are nearly 93 per cent, of water, and " pectose " 3 per cent.
The nutrient ratio is 1:6; the nutrient value not quite 4.

26 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF OUR GARDEN VEGETABLES.

CHAPTER III.

GEEEN VEGETABLES.
ASPARAGUS.

Asparagus officinalis, L., is a native on the coasts of Wales, Cornwall,
and Dorset, but is rare. It was well known to and cultivated by the
ancients. Pliny devotes a chapter to its cultivation, mentioning that
the dead stems were burnt down, the ashes being thus restored to the
bed. All writers, from Pliny to Parkinson (seventeenth century), allude
more to its supposed medicinal virtues than to its use as an article of
diet. Dodoens figured it in 1559, and all subsequent herbalists have also
done so. He adds, " The shoots are boyled and eaten in salet with oyle,
salt and vinegar." To this Gerard (1597) adds: " Sodden in flesh
broth."

At the present day, in the southern parts of Russia and Poland,
the waste steppes are covered with it, and it is there eaten by horses
and cattle.* With regard to the chemical analysis of asparagus,
Professor Church found 89'8 per cent, of water, 3'0 per cent, of
albuminoids, 5*9 per cent, of sugar, etc. Hence the nutrient ratio
is 3'0 : 5*9, the nutrient value being 9*3.

"FRENCH" ASPARAGUS.

A plant, the spring shoots of which, consisting of the inflorescences
in bud, are sold in the markets of Bath under the above name. It is
botanically known as Ornithogalum pyrenaicum, L. It occurs in
woods and copses of southern counties. It is allied to the " Star of
Bethlehem " (0. umbellatum, L.), a naturalized wild flower. The
present writer considers it very insipid.

AUBERGINE OR EGG-PLANT.

This is known botanically as Solanum Melongena, L. It has long
been known in India, but not in Europe until the close of the sixteenth
century. In North Africa it was known in the ninth century, and is
now cultivated throughout the Nile Valley (De Candolle). It is not so
commonly used in England as on the Continent. It is eaten cooked.

BROAD BEAN.

This was called Vicia Faba by Linnaeus, but is now better known
as Faba vulgaris, Moench. After an exhaustive examination of all the

* Treasury of Botany, s.v.

GREEN VEGEtABLES. 27

localities recorded of its being wild, De Candolle's conclusion is that the
origin is not known. The Greeks of old called it kuamon. It was found
in the excavations of Troy; and " it was an ancient Roman rite to
put beans in the sacrifices to the goddess Carna, whence the name
Fabariae Calendae." A small bean has been found in the remains
of the Swiss lake dwelling of the Bronze Age. It resembles
a variety still cultivated in Spain. It was well known in Egypt; but
Herodotus says, " The Egyptians never sow the bean in their land,
and if it grows they do not eat it either cooked or raw. The priests
cannot even endure the sight of it: they imagine that it is unclean."
The explanation probably is that it was only cultivated by the poorer
classes as the bean existed then in Egypt.

In II Samuel xvii. 28 and Ezek. iv. 9 the word " pol " occurs, and
is translated "bean," as the Talmud maintains it to be this, the
Arabic word fol still signifying the bean.

De Candolle suggests that Vicia narbonensis , wild in the Mediter-
ranean basin, north of Persia, and Mesopotamia, may have been the
origin of our cultivated plant, as it most nearly resembles it. The reader
is referred to the kidney, French, or haricot bean for the dietetic values
of these plants, as Professor Church does not specify that of the common
or broad bean.

KIDNEY OB FRENCH BEAN.

Phaseolus vulgaris, L. var. nanus (sp. L.), if not the dwarf kidney
bean, is something like it, and was cultivated by the ancient Greeks.
Dioscorides describes it, a figure being added to a manuscript of the fifth
century now at Vienna under the Greek name, " Phasioli " ; Dr.
Daubeny pronounces the illustration to be ' ' very good. ' ' According
to Liddell and Scott's Lexicon, Aristophanes (fifth century B.C.) is
quoted as referring to it ; and a light boat was also called * ' phaselus, ' '
probably from its likeness to the pod. ' ' From this we might infer
a long history of the kidney bean in Greece. But was it not a species
of Dolichos ?

Bentham and Hooker place Dolichos the sixth in position from
Phaseolus in the tribe " Phaseoleae." The leaves in both are three-
foliate. The pods are linear or falcate, the flowers various in colour.
Pliny observes : "In the case of the kidney bean, it is usual to eat
the pod together with the seed." Turner (1548) says of " Phasiolus
otherwise called Dolichos ; it may be called in Englishe, ' Large peasen
or favelles.' It is in great plentie about Pauia in Italy."

Dodoens (1559) gives a figure of the dwarf bean, the pods hanging
from the axils of leaves immediately above the root. This he called
Phaseolos and Dolichos (Greek), Smilax hortensis (Latin).

Matthiolus, in his commentary on Dioscorides, gives a good figure,
observing : ' ' Phasioli are common in Italy in gardens and frequently
in fields. There are many kinds, distinguished by their various colours,
white, reddish, black, and spotted " — evidently referring to the seeds.

Gerard (1597) illustrated four kinds of Phaseolus and two of Smilax ;
but it is difficult to recognize our P. vulgaris. Johnson in his edition

28 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF OUR GARDEN VEGETABLES.

of Gerard (1636), adds others from Clusius, such as P. peregrinus,
fructa minore albo, which he describes as follows: "The stalk of
this is low and stif ; the flours are of a whitish yellow on the outside,
and of a violet colour within; the fruit [seed] is snow white, with
a black spot in the eye. This is P. peregrinus, 4 of Clusius." It seems
to correspond with the haricot. This name is derived from the Italian
Araco, given to a common field weed of Southern Europe, known as
Ochrus. Johnson adds that Olusius obtained his sorts from " the East
and West Indies." Lastly, after a long investigation into the history
of P. vulg&ris, A. de Candolle sums up as follows: " (1) P. vulgans
has not been long cultivated in India, the south-west of Asia, and
Egypt; (2) it is not certain that it was known in Europe before the
discovery of America ; (3) at this epoch the number of varieties suddenly
increased in European gardens, and all authors commenced to mention
them; (4) the majority of species of the genus exist in South America;
(5) seeds apparently belonging to the species have been discovered in
Peruvian tombs of an uncertain date, intermixed with many species,
all being American. " .An interesting paper * upon the seeds and tubers
found in the Peruvian tombs (the date being from the twelfth to
fifteenth centuries) fully confirms the fact that Phaseolus vulgans and
the varieties oblongus and ellipticus, of various colours, were cultivated
in Peru long before the Spaniards entered South America.

SCARLET EUNNER BEAN.

Phaseolus multiflorus (Lim. P. vulgaris var. coccineus) is a native
of South America, and was introduced in 1633, according to Paxton.
Linnaeus (1764) refers to two botanists, who wrote of it — Jakob
Coruntus and Morison, both of the same century. It is figured by
Parkinson (1640) as "P. Indicus, flore coccineo, the Scarlet flowered
Frenche beane." He adds that " it grew in the West Indies, and was
first grown by Mr. Tradescant, ' ' the gardener to Charles I. He died
about 1652.

The amount of nutrition in haricot and French and scarlet
runner beans may be assumed to be much the same. Professor
Church says that the pods contained 9T8 per cent, of water,
0'64 per cent, of mineral matter, and 2'02 of true albuminoids. The
beans contain 23 per cent, albuminoids, 52*3 per cent, of starch, &c.,
and mineral matters 2'9 per cent.; the nutrient ratio being 1: 2*5;
the nutrient value, 80.

Lentils appear to be the most nutritious of all vegetables as
regards the quantity of nitrogen present, the albuminoids amounting
to 25 per cent., while the starch is 56 per cent.

To supply a convenient standard among underground roots for the
carbonaceous qualities, the Potato may be taken, for this has only
1'2 per cent, of albuminoids, but 18 per cent, of starch.

* " Sur les Graines et Tubercules des Tombeaux Peruvians de la Periode
Incasique," par MM. Costantin et Bois, Rev. Gen. de Bot. vol. xxii. p. 242.

CHAPTEE IV.

GEEEN VEGETABLES (continued).
THE CABBAGE TRIBE.

Brassica* oleracea, L. (Cruci ferae), is a native on the chalk cliffs of
the coasts of England (figs. 11, 12) and of Wales, the Channel Islands,
and W. and S. Europe. It has no wild varieties, but innumerable
sorts have arisen under cultivation. It supplies a nutritious diet from
the roots, stems, and branches, as well as from the leaf -buds, leaves,
and unexpanded inflorescences.

The origin of the name " cabbage "is as follows : In the sixteenth
century the French name of the plant was choulx, " as if we wished to
speak of the stems, Latin, caules, by which also Brassica is called by
Cato, since scarcely any herb grows larger in the stem. The ' choulz
cabuz ' are -the most delicate for eating." f This appears to have been
the popular French name for the Crambe capitata or " Cabbage cole "
of Gerard. In modern French the first word is retained, so that chou
alone signifies the cabbage ; while in English this is dropped, and we
have turned the second into cabbage (formerly spelt " cabbidge ").
Cabuz is derived from capus, which meant in French " round-headed,"
being itself derived from the Italian capuccio, a ' 'little head," a
diminutive of capo, Latin caput.

Root. — The only instance of the roots being cultivated was a variety
called Napo-brassica, first mentioned by C. Bauhin (" Pinax," 1671),
and described as being like a carrot or turnip and cultivated in the
colder parts of Bavaria, and especially on the mountains near Bohemia.
It was called " Dorsen " or " Dorschen."

Tournefort described this, but only in the words of Bauhin, and
makes no mention of its being grown in his day (1730).

A turnip -like form is cultivated in France, differing from the
Kohl-rabi in that the leaves arise from the summit only, so that it
resembles a turnip, the globular part belonging to the root. It is
known as Chou-Navet. I

* With regard to the derivation of the word Brassica, Hermann Boerhaave
(1727) says it is from airb TOV ftpd££ivt Lat. vorare ["to devour"], quia haec
planta locum tenet inter herbas edules, i.e., " because it holds a place among
edible plants." But there is no such Greek verb. There is Ppdcro-civ, i fipdfctvv,
"to boil," and fiippwffKftv, "to eat," as well as the word avaftp6^eivt from an
obsolete verb, avafip6x<D, "to swallow" or "gulp down."

t De Re Hortenzi Libellus, by Carolus Stephanus, 1545.

+ It is figured in Les Legumes et Les Fruits, Paris, 1893.

30

ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF OUR GARDEN VEGETABLES.

Stem. — There are two forms of the stem in use; the most important
is the Kohl-rabi (var. Caulorapa), remarkable for its globular form. It
is not clear whether it was known to the ancients, but Pliny's descrip-
tion of the " Corinthian " turnip seems to agree with it. He says:
" The root is all but out of the ground ; indeed, this is the only kind
that in growing shoots upwards, and not, as all the others do, down-
wards into the ground."

It appears to have been introduced into Germany from Italy about
1558, and into Tripoli about 1574. Dodoens, who figures five kinds
of Brassica, omits it (1559); so also does Lobel (1576); but Dodoens, in
his " History of Plants " (second edition, date ?), says of No. 4 : "It

FIG. 11.— WILD CABBAGE AS GROWING ON CHALK CLIFFS, S.E. ENGLAND.

beareth a great round knop like a Turnep, the which groweth right
under the leaves, even hard upon the ground, and is white within, like
a Turnep, and is even so drest and prepared to be eaten." This, pre-
sumably, was in Holland, about 1570.

Matthiolus, in his " Commentary on Dioscorides " (1574), has a
good figure of Kohl-rabi under the name Brassica gongylodes. He
says it is cultivated in the gardens of Italy, and observes that the stem
becomes tuberous, like that of the rape (" cujus caulis rapi in morem
extuberat ").

A very poor specimen is figured in the " Historia Plantarum,''
generally attributed to Dalechamp, printed at Lyon (Lugdunum). If
anything can be inferred from it, it would seem not to have been much

GEEEN VEGETABLES.

31

cultivated in France in 1586, for other and later figures are improve-
ments. (Fig. 13.)

Gerard separates this kind from the Colewoortes or Cabbage tribe as
"Rape Cole," Caulorapum rotundum, and reproduces Matthiolus'
figure, adding a second, in which a few leafy shoots proceed from the
axils of the leaf-scars on the tuberous stem. This being oblong instead
of globular, he calls it C. longum, or Long Rape Cole. (Fig. 14.)

He gives as the countries of cultivation Italy, Spain, and some
places in Germany, omitting France. ' They are accounted for daintie
meate. "

There is another kind of cabbage with a peculiarly formed swollen

tta manna.

ifti fea Colewoorts.

FIG. 12.— WILD CABBAGE (GERARD, 1597).

stem, being tapered at both ends, and called Chou Moellier Blanc, or
the " white Marrow Cabbage." * " The Chou Moellier," Mr. Button
tells me, " is used in France for cattle food, and both leaves and stems
are employed for this purpose, the latter being chopped up. This is a
favourite crop with some French farmers." The stem swells to
about four times the diameter at the base, then tapers again a4> the
summit. The foliage is that of the wild plant. Pliny's description of
the Pompeian cabbage seems to tally with this as to the stem.

The fact that the cabbage plant has a conspicuous and thick stem
is the reason why caulis (Latin for a " stem ") supplied the later name.

* Illustrations are given in present-day French catalogues.

32 OBI GIN AND HISTOEY OF OUR GARDEN VEGETABLES.

Thus Turner observes (1547) that ihe English name was Cole or Keele,
the Dutch Kol, the French Chaules, and that the apothecaries of his
day actually called the plant Caulis.

In a glossary of the fourteenth century called " Sinonoma Bartho-
lomei " it is said that Bras sica was the name before transplanting;
afterwards, as a garden vegetable, it was called Caulis. This was the
official name, corrupted into the English forms cole, coule, rede-coule,
coole, and reed-worte, in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.

The Foliage. — The most important writer on the Cabbage among
the ancients is Pliny. He commences his chapter on the varieties as
follows: — " Cabbage and Coleworts, which at the present day are the

''

FIG. 13. — BRASSICA RAPOSA, ORIGIN OF KOHL RABI (HISTORIA PLANTARTJM, 1586).

most highly esteemed of all the garden vegetables, were held in little
repute among the Greeks." But Cato, on the other hand, sings the
wondrous praises of the cabbage. He distinguishes three varieties : the
first, a plant with leaves wide open and a large stalk [the early Savoy
Cabbage?] ; a second, with crisped leaves, to which he gives the name
of apiaca [curled colewort ?] ; and a third, with a thin stalk and a
smooth, tender leaf, which with, him ranks the lowest of all [not
identifiable; probably near to the wild form.]

" The best time for sowing them is at the autumnal equinox, and
they are usually transplanted as soon as five leaves are visible. In the
ensuing spring, after the first cutting, the plant yields sprouts, known

GREEN VEGETABLES.

33

as cymae. These sprouts, in fact, are small shoots thrown out from
the main stem, of a more delicate and tender quality than the cabbage
itself. After the cymae have made their appearance the cabbage
throws out its summer and autumn shoots, and then its winter ones,
after which a new crop of cymae is produced."

It has been suggested that cymae (or cymata, as Oolumella writes
it) were vegetative buds developed as leafy shoots. If so, this would
be just like the form now cultivated as the " thousand-headed kale,"
adaptable for sheep.

The various kinds named and described by Pliny are as follows :
" (1) Tritiana; (2) Cumanian, with leaves close to the ground and a

FIG. 14. — RAPE COLE (Caulorapum rotundum), AFTER GERARD, 1597.

wide open head; (3) Ariciman, of no greater height, but with more
numerous leaves and thinner (-this last is looked upon as the most
useful of them all, for beneath nearly all of the leaves there are small
shoots thrown out, peculiar to the variety) ; (4) the cabbage of Pompeii
is considerably taller, the stalk, which is thin at the root, increasing in
thickness as it rises among the leaves, which are fewer in number and
narrower (the great merit of this cabbage is its remarkable tenderness,
although it is not able to stand the cold*); (5) the Bruttum thrives all
the better for the cold, its leaves are remarkably large, the stalk thin
and the flavour pungent; (6) the Sabine has leaves crisped to such a

•.•* The above description of No. 4 agrees remarkably with the Chou Moellier
Blanc, described above.

34 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF OUR GARDEN VEGETABLES.

degree as to excite our surprise, and their thickness is such as to quite
exhaust [conceal?] the stem;* in sweetness, however, it is said to
surpass all the others; (7) Lacuturris (i.e., " lake-tower "). They are
grown in the valley of Aricia, where formerly was a lake and a tower.
The head of this cabbage is very large ; there is no cabbage that runs
to a larger head than this, with the sole exception of the Tritiana, which
has a head sometimes as much as a foot in thickness, and throws out
its cymae the latest of all." This is the most complete list we possess
of the varieties in the first century of our era. We have to come to
the sixteenth century for any new descriptions ; and although some
writers of that century, as Dodoens, still recognise the forms of his
day as being comparable with Pliny's, the difficulty now of doing so
is greatly increased, though we find varieties of similar types. It
would be rash to call them lineal descendants, as the same forms will
arise afresh under similar conditions, as has occurred more than once
when wild seed has been grown for experimental purposes in gardens.
The earliest attempt at an illustration of Brassica oleracea, L., that
I know of is one in an edition of the " De Herbarum viribus " (1506),
by Macer Floridus. He wrote his poem in 1140, and the first printed
edition was issued in 1487 at Naples. The figure is suggestive of the
wild plant or a kale, but certainly not of a cabbage. It is named
Caulis, and the hexameter line referring to it runs —

Caulis romana, graecorum, Brassica lingua.

Dodoens gives illustrations of five sorts of Brassica (1559), but
the seed of the last was sold for that of rape, as he describes it as
supplying oil for lamps, &c. He describes five sorts of " white " and
five " black," including the rape, and identifies them as follows with
Pliny's names :

No. 1. Brassica sessilis et capitata, corresponds with Pliny's (1)
Tritiana.

No. 2. Allobrogica or Sabaudica, l Choux de Savoy,' with a smaller
and longer head, sweeter than the first, and impatient of cold. It is
Pliny's (7) Lacuturris.

No. 3. Cauliflores, unknown to the ancients unless it be (4) Pom-
peiana or Cypria.\

No. 4. Rapecaulis, the kohl-rabi; perhaps Pliny's "turnip," as
stated.

No. 5. Patula, "with crisp and rugose foliage; as it is much
darker in colour, and approaches the B. nigrae, it is called Negrecaulis
by the Italians."

Of the Brassicae nigrae, " commonly called rubra caulis," Dodoens
describes —
, No. 1. Patula, " with very large leaves lying on the ground, on a

* Bohn's translation has " exhaust." Not having access to the original
Latin I do not feel sure as to the meaning, and suggest " conceal," as the stem
is no longer visible, as in Button's " Al Kale."

t There is nothing in Pliny's description to suggest this. As stated, it agrees
better with the Chou moellier.

GREEN VEGETABLES. 35

short stem. This was Cato's leia, and agrees with Pliny's (2)
Cumanian."

No. 2. " Another capitate form, but much smaller than Pliny's
Tritiana. Perhaps it is his Lacuturris."

No. 3. " Foliage variously and doubly incised, like parsley. It is
the Selinoeides of Cato. "

No. 4. " Excessively crisped foliage, usually called B. crispa; it
is Pliny's Sabellica."*

In^Gerard's " Herbal " (1597) there are fifteen figures of ' Cole-
worts ' or forms of Brassica oleracea, L. They are interesting in
showing something like the probable origins of the existing chief
modern types in cultivation, from the slight modifications which arose
in the wild form. This Gerard calls B. marina anglica or " English

FIG. 15. — EARLY FORM OF KALE, RESEMBLING THE WILD PLANT (GERARD, 1597).

sea colewort " (No. 10). The sources of the cultivated forms can
be detected in the original wild plant. . Thus Hooker describes the stem
as " very stout"; and, unlike the. turnip, carrot, and radish, it does
not produce a rosette of leaves on the ground, but at an elevation.
Hence this caulis or stem at once distinguished it in the eyes of the
early cultivators. As the lower leaves fall off the upper, with very
short initernodes, form a dense cluster at the top. In this we see the
origin of the ." head " of the cabbage. When the stem elongates, and
the leaves are more scattered, it produces the kales (fig. 15). Below
the lowest leaves Gerard figures a few globular buds. In his
' Perseley Coolewort,' a kale with finely dissected leaves, the buds are
represented as much more numerous. In them we may see the origin
of our Brussels sprouts.

* Dodonaeus' (Rembertus) De Stirpium Historia Commentariorum Imagines

36 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF OUR GARDEN VEGETABLES.

In the ninth figure of ' Cole Florie, ' changed to-day into ' Cauli-
flower, ' there is a very small group of little clusters of flower buds
embedded in a large mass of foliage; in fact it occupies less than tEe
twentieth part of it. If this represents the earliest form of the large
cauliflowers we have now it is not surprising that Pliny knew nothing
about it. (Fig. 16.)

Great changes have taken place in the shape of the leaves. In
the wild form Hooker describes the leaf of the plant as " obovate,
lobed, and sinuate." There is a terminal, the largest, lobe, and from
one to four pairs of much smaller ones below. To the enormous
expansion of the uppermost lobe cabbages are due. " Sinuate " means
having a "wavy" margin; in this one sees the origin of all the
" crisped " forms, due to an immense increase, by hypertrophy, of the
minute interspaces between the tips of the veins.

Co/if Flone

FIG. 16. — EARLY FORM OF CAULIFLOWER (GERARD, 1597).

Hooker classes the cultivated forms under the following heads :
Acephala, i.e., headless, the Scotch kale, cow cabbage, and borecole;
Bullata and Gemmifera, Savoys and Brussels sprouts; Capitata, the
red and white cabbages; Caulompa, the kohl-rabi ; Botrytis, the
cauliflower and broccoli*

Eeturning to Gerard's figures and comparing No. 1 with the wild
plant, No. 15, the only difference we can see is that the lower part of
the stem has retained its leaves, instead of becoming bare. This is the
first result of cultivation and the beginning of some of the kales. The
best modern form of this is seen in Sutton's magnificent ' Al 'kale;
there is the crown of leaves at the summit, but the whole stem below
is densely covered with leaves, the entire foliage being thoroughly
crisped. The description is that of " curled sprouts," Though many

GREEN VEGETABLES. 37

of the leaves of the stem are retained the great mass of the foliage
below the terminal branch is due to the development of the auxiliary
buds, the leaves of which are sessile and much curled and crisped;
not growing out into shoots, as in the ;* thousand-headed kale."

Gerard gives two other figures of kales in which leaves are retained
almost to the root ; and in these the stems have grown upwards so as
to lengthen the internodes and prevent the rosette or head forming.
The leaves in both are finely divided, so he calls them Brassica
selimsia, the parsley colewoort, and B. selinoides, fine-cut colewoort.
He says it was not much known, and he is the first to describe it.
A form somewhat resembling these still appears as a ' ' sport, ' ' but
I am not aware of its being cultivated. However, Gerard was wrong in
saying that he was the first to describe the laciniate types; for 'two,
called Brassica crispa Tragi and B. tenuifolia recimata, are figured in
" Historia Plantarum, " 1586.

No. 2, which Gerard calls B. Saliva crispa, or * Curled garden
cole,' only differs from No. 1 in having a naked stem below and the
leaves rather more cut and very slightly curled at the edges; the most
primitive condition of the " crisped " forms of to-day.

No. 10 is another form of the last, having the whole margin
strongly revolute. Gerard describes it as B. taphosa (apparently from
a rough resemblance to pumice-stone); "the swolen Colewoorte of al
other is the strangest; it came from Fraunce." One or two modern
kinds certainly approximate to it. Thus Mr. Button writes me as
follows : "I am struck with the close resemblance of the plant
[B. tophosa of Gerard] to two types of kale which are well known
in the trade to-day. One is the Chou palmier of France, or palm-tree
kale of England. [A bullated form, but not with the margins so
much ' revoluted ' as in tophosa.] The other is the Welsh tree kale,
growing from four to five feet high, and producing an abundance
of similar leaves up to the stem with a pyramidal habit. The leaves
of the Welsh kale much more resemble those of Gerard's picture,
being very much curved back."

The Borecole, so called from the Dutch boerenlcool, meaning
" peasant's cabbage," is a hardy form of kale, with the leaves loose and
much curled. It is apparently almost a crisped form of the wild
cabbage; the foliage may be green or purple, or sometimes variegated
with red or yellow colours, and then often used as a decorative plant.
Varieties are known under the names of German greens, Buda kale,
Scotch kale or curlies.

With regard to size, some have very tall stems, others stems of
medium length, and others dwarf. Differences are noticed by later
writers. Thus C. Bauhin,* describing one form of kale, says that it
has been seen " as high as trees " at Florence. Tournefort describes
a red colewort as being ' ' taller than the other species ; for it grows up
with a high stalk, two, three, or four foot, or even cubits, high, which
is thick and of a dark purple colour, rugged on the lower part, some-

* Pinax, p. Ill (1617).

38

ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF OUR GARDEN VEGETABLES.

times single, and at other times branched out into arms ... if well,
looked after it arrives to the height and firmness of a tree. " *

We seem to see here something resembling our Jersey kales, of
the stems of which walking-sticks are made. Gerard's figures thus
illustrate a certain progression from the wild plant. The leaves
become more wavy, then more dissected, till the parsley-form is
reached.

Crispness is next adopted, in various degrees, among which the
curious " tophosa " type occurred. It is this group wherein so great
an advance in form and variety occurs at the present day. Those
with leaves of slight departure from the wild plant, as Carter's
Phosnix kale, might be mentioned, with erect foliage and broad
terminal lobes. Then his Chou de Russie is a first step towards the

6 BrajSHea Psfute

Open cabbage Cole.

FIG. 17.— THE OPEN CABBAGE COLE (Brassica patula), AFTER GERARD, 1597.

more dissected parsley-type. The thousand-headed kale I has also a
primitve type of leaf, but the stem buds are fully developed into
shoots.

We now come to the true cabbage, with the leaves closing over
one another, making the compact head; but before arriving at this
stage we have to pass from the kales with spreading foliage. The
first step is a great increase in the dimension of the terminal lobe till
it becomes nearly circular. Even in the wild state it is often very
large. In a leaf from a wild plant from the chalk cliffs at Walmer
the terminal lobe is 9^ inches long by 7 inches in breadth. It has
only one deep indentation, reaching within one inch of the midrib.

* The Compleat Herbal, vol. i. p. 429.

t A better name, perhaps, would be ' Thousand-shooting ' kale.

GKEEN VEGETABLES. 3

Gerard's third figure, of the Bed Colewoort (B. rubra), has broader
leaves, which form a denser cluster, but still spreading. This may
have been the origin of our pickling cabbage. The next figure, No. 4,
B. capitata alba, the White Cabbage Cole, is the first he recognises as
a true cabbage, but the leaves are more erect and still loose. He says
of these two, No. 3, " The red kind, of Colewoort is likewise a Cole-
woort of the garden, and differeth from the common in the colour of
his leaves, which tende vnto rednesse, otherwise very like No. 4,
There is also founde a certaine kinde heereof with the leaues wrapped

FIG. 18. — EARLY FORM OF SAVOY CABBAGE, THE " CURLED SAUOIE COLE "

(GERARD, 1597).

togither into a rounde head or globe, whose head is white of colour,
especially toward winter, when it is ripe."

No. 6 is called B. patula, or Open Cabbage Cole (fig. 17). The
leaves are represented as quite circular; but, as Gerard says, " when
it cometh to the shutting up or closing togither, it rather dilateth it
selfe abroade than closeth al together." As the object of the culti-
vator is to make his cabbages form a ' ' heart ' ' this form has probably
disappeared.

The genuine hearting cabbage is represented by Gerard's fig. 5.
It is " lesser than the white cabbage, and the colour of the leaves is
of a lighter red than those of the former " (No. 4). Gerard gives two
figures of the Savoy Cabbage, now known botanically as B. oleracea
bullata; but this character of bulging between the meshes of the ribs
and rims is neither figured nor alluded to, so that it is probably a

40 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF OUR GARDEN VEGETABLES.

later production. He figures them as having round leaves, but very
" open," thus describing them:

Fig. 11, B. sabauda, " Sauoie Cole. The leaues are greet and
large, werie like to those of the great Cabbage, which turne them-
selues vpwardes as though they woulde embrace one another to make
a loued Cabbage; but when they come to the shutting vp they stande
at a staie, and rather shewe themselues wider open than shut any
neerer togither; in other respects it is like vnto a Cabbage." In this
respect, therefore, it resembles an intermediate stage between kales
and the hearting or headed cabbages of to-day.

Messrs. Button have developed a bullated form of Kale, called the
"Palm-leaved Kale," which might represent the preliminary stage
towards the Savoy Cabbage, the leaves spreading, like those of a palm
tree, and not incurved.

No. 12 is B. S. crispa, " Curled Sauoie Cole," which only differs in
having a slightly curled margin. (Fig. 18.)

The present-day description of the Savoy as given in the ' ' Treasury
of Botany " is that it is " chiefly distinguished by its leaves being
wrinkled in Such a manner as to have a netted appearance. When
fully headed it forms an .excellent hardy winter vegetable. ' ' Hence the
Savoy differs now from Gerard's in having a central heart, a
" bullated " surface, and often a crisped margin.

The varieties of true " hearting " cabbages are now innumerable,
and it would be useless to enumerate them. Some are suitable for
cattle and more for domestic purposes. Messrs. Carter alone have
nearly forty varieties of red, white, and Savoy cabbages.

When globular buds are produced they can be borne on the stem
in the axils of the leaves or leaf -scars, and only a rosette of leaves on
the top, giving us the ordinary Brussels sprouts. The top may be
replaced by many buds, as occurred in 1787, or both may be combined,
a true cabbage being borne with sprouts below. This is Messrs. Carter's
new Cabbage-sprout, the result of a hybrid between W inning stadt
Cabbage and Cambridge Champion Brussels Sprout.*

The curious proliferous form mentioned above was described in
1787.1 It is called B. capita polycephalos. (Fig. 19.) In size it
resembled ordinary cabbages, but differed in bearing several heads
(sometimes fifty, the size of eggs, according to Tournefort), some larger,
some smaller. It was thought to have resulted from extra nourishment.
It is said to be an unaccustomed and rare form. There is no evidence
of its having had any descendants, and Mr. A. Sutton writes that at
the present day ' * there is no variety or strain of cabbage which produces
an abundance of small cabbage heads ; but we have often seen plants
somewhat like your description [of the polycephalos], where the first
head of a plant in a young stage has been injured, either by the hoe or
by insects."

Brussels sprouts are so called from the fact that they originated in

* Catalogue, 1907, p. 21 (figure and description).

t Historia generalis plantamm, p. 521. Attributed to Dalechamps.

GREEN VEGETABLES.

41

Belgium and have been long cultivated there. They were brought to
England about the middle of the last century, and are characterised by
the production of numerous buds in the form of miniature cabbages in
the axils of the leaves all along the stem, instead of making a single
large head at the summit. In six of Gerard's figures he shows a few
buds occurring on the otherwise bare stern. Such foreshadow the
possibility of their development into the modern form.

In ordinary Brussels sprouts the globular buds are produced without
the leaves on the stems ; but Mr. James Carter developed a form in
which the leaves W7ere retained, covering the stem in an erect manner.

CAP IT AT A

FIG. 19. — MONSTROUS FORM OF CABBAGE (DALECHAMP, 1586).

It was called ' Chou de Burghley,' but " it was not constant, and
sometimes ran into all sorts of other types."

Gerard figures also " B. prolifera, Double Colewoort, No. 7, and
B. p. crispa, the Double Crispe Colewoort." His description of the
former is: " The Double Colewoort hath many large and great leaues,
whereupon do grow heere and there oher small iagged leaues, as it
were made of ragged shreds and iagges set vpon the smooth leafe,
which giueth" shewe of a plume or fanne of feathers." The other
variety only differs in having " intricately curled leaues, and so thick
set ouer with other small cut leaues, that it is hard to see any part of

42 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF OUR GARDEN VEGETABLES.

the leafe it selfe, except yee take and put aside some of those iagges and
ragged leaues with your hande. "

He does not say whether these proliferous sorts were cultivated, but
such outgrowths from the ribs on the under side of the leaves are not
at all uncommon. They sometimes take the form of funnels on long
stalks.

Messrs. Carter inform me that " there is a kind of borecole cabbage
grown for the Paris markets at the end of winter called Bricoli Cabbage ;
we fancy we have noticed the crested growth you mention coming from
the back of the ribs of this variety."

Inflorescence. — The broccoli and cauliflower supply globular masses
of hypertrophied inflorescences, the flowers being in bud, the name
implying " flowers of the stem " (caulis). It is known as " chou-fleur "
in French, broccoli being the Italian name, from brocco, a " shoot " ; f or
the primitive type was probably not a compact mass but a bundle of
shoots, as occurs in the Maltese broccoli to-day. Gerard's figure,
described above, is a very primitive form of the modern massive head.
(Fig. 16.)

" The sprouting or asparagus broccoli represents the first form
exhibited by the new vegetable when it ceased to be the earliest cabbage,
and was grown with an especial view to its [flowering] shoots. After
this, by continued selection and successive improvements, varieties
were obtained which produced a compact white head, and some of
these varieties were still further improved into kinds which are suf-
ficiently early to commence and complete their rustic growth in the
course of the same year. These last-named kinds are now known by
the name of cauliflower. ' ' *

With regard to the two principal modern forms of sprouting
broccoli, Mr. Button writes : " ' The White Sprouting Broccoli ' has
been known as such for at least fifty years, and is carefully selected
year by year to the best type. Purple sprouting broccoli, on the other
hand, may or may not have been developed from the old ' Purple Cape '
broccoli; but in habit of growth it more resembles a closer, more
compact form of the thousand-headed kale, the edges of the leaves
being serrated, and the plant much branched, the small purple heads
eventually developing into flower buds."

The " heads," as sold in Malta, appear to be more like a degenerate
form of English broccoli, as they are not round and compact, but loose
and in spikes, without bearing leaves, whereas our sprouting broccolis
are derived from the lateral leafy shoots of the stem (as in thousand-
headed kale), but terminate in an inflorescence. The earliest notice of
this variety appears to be in Miller's " Dictionary," 1724, where it is
called the ' Sprout Colliflower. ' It seems to have originated in Italy.
Being sown in September there, as in Malta, it is cut in April or May.

The Cauliflower was earlier known, being mentioned by Dodonaeus
— 1553 or 1559 — and figured by Gerard, 1597, though it was rare in
Parkinson's time, 1629.

* The Vegetable Garden, 1885, p. 95.

GREEN VEGETABLES. 43

As illustrating the origin of the many varieties of Brassica oleracea
by cultivation, Professor Buckman raised varieties from the seed of
wild plants collected from Llandudno, " some having short petioles
and the close-hearting condition of cabbages, both green and red, the
tendency [to vary] being much increased by repeated transplanting.
Others, with longer petioles and lyrate leaves, seem to take on the
looser method of growth of kales, &c." With reference to persistency
of form, Professor Buckman adds : " It may be remarked, as throwing
some light on the nature of the changes by which the cultivated
varieties of this genus have been attained, that experiments with seeds
of plants showing any particular tendency, and especially if repeatedly
grown in the same soil, will ever result in an increase of the same
peculiarity." *

* Treasury of Botany, s.v. Brassica.

44 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF OUR GARDEN VEGETABLES.

CHAPTER V.

GEEEN VEGETABLES (continued).
CABDOON AND GLOBE ABTICHOKE.

THESE two plants were formely regarded as distinct species, Cynara
Scolymus, L., and C, Cardunculus, L., respectively; but now they
are considered varieties of the same plant, a native of South Europe
and North Africa. Indeed, Linnaeus quotes Bauhin as saying that
the latter will spring from the seed of the former.

Parkinson (1629) appears to be the first to call the Cardoon Car-
duns esculentus — i.e. " edible thistle " — though it is recorded as having
been introduced in 1658 and cultivated in Holyrood Palace Garden in
1683. " It has been more cultivated on the Continent than here. The
only parts eaten are the inner leaf-stalks and the top of the stalk called
the receptacle of the florets when blanched and used in stews, soups,
and salads." It is one of the European plants which has spread to an
enormous extent over the prairies of South America.

Dioscorides uses the word Kinara, and Pliny Scolumos, which he
also calls Limonia, and classes it among thistles. He is probably
referring to the Cardoon in saying, " There is one plant the cultiva-
tion of which is extremely profitable and of which I am unable to
speak without a certain degree of shame; for it is a well-known fact
that some small plots of land planted with thistles (scolymos) in the
vicinity of Great Carthage, and of Corduba more particularly, produce
a yearly income of six thousand sesterces [about £26] , this being the
way in which we make the monstrous productions even of the earth
subservient to our gluttonous appetites, and that, too, when the four-
footed brutes instinctively refuse to touch them 1 " Pliny also says it
has numerous medicinal virtues. In his " History of Plants," Dodoens
describes three kinds of Scolymus, or "Wilde thistle "; one, he says,
" might well be called Carduus asinus — that is to say, Asse thistell. "
In his plates (1559) he figures both Scolymus, or Cinara, as Articoca
of Italy, and Cinarae aliud genus as the Chardons of Italy. He
describes it as much more spinescent and less used as food.

Gerard (1597) gives a good figure of the Artichoke (3 inches in
diameter), which he calls Cinara maxima anglica, " the great red Arti-
choke." A second differing but little is the C. m. alba. A third,
C. sylvestris, or " wilde Artichoke," is much more spinescent, and is
called Cardino by the Italians, Chardon by the French, from the Latin
carduus ; hence Cardoon.

Parkinson (1640) alludes to a statement of Theophrastus (fourth

GREEN VEGETABLES. 45

century B.C.) that " the head of Scolymus is most pleasant, being
boyled or eaten raw, but chiefly when it is in flower, as also the inner
substance of the heads is eaten."

Tournefort (1730) says: "The Artichoak is well known at the
table. What we call the bottom is the thalamus on which the embryos
of the seeds are placed. The leaves are the scales of the empalement.
The Choak is the florets, with a chaffy substance intermixt. The
French and Germans boil the heads as we do, but the Italians generally
eat them raw with salt, oil, and pepper."

This author seems to refer to the " scales " as being eaten as well
as the " bottom," but does not say when the former were first used,
though the word " choak," or, as we would quote it, "choke," is
appropriate for the pappus, or " chaffy substance," but the name
"Artichoke " is really a corruption of the Italian Articiocco, itself a
corruption of the Arabic Al harshaf.

The " receptacle " has a delicate flavour, but contains little nutritive
matter.

CELERY AND CELERIAC.

Celery in ancient times was regarded as a kind of parsley, under the
name Paludapium, i.e. " Marsh Parsley," being a more or less aquatic
plant. The Latin name selinon, adopted from the Greek, is mentioned
by Lucius Appuleius (163 A.D.). This gave rise to the Piedmontese
Italian seleri, and thence to the English words.

In the Middle Ages it was called Merche and Smallage, but Apium
by the apothecaries and herbalists, being much used in medicine. In
the Eastern parts bordering the Mediterranean the foliage is used for
flavouring, as in Malta, Italy, and the Levant, but never blanched.
Lfc was only used medicinally in the sixteenth century; for Gerard says :
' This is not woonted to be eaten, neither is it counted good for sauce."

Parkinson (1640) observes: " It is not to be endured to be eaten
alone, but, being boyled and otherwise dressed, it favoureth better."
But he seems only to signify its use as a drug, and not as food. It
appears to have been first blanched about 1670; for Sharrock in his
book on vegetables devotes a section to the " Blanching or Whiting of
Sallad Herbs," such as the succories, &c. ; he does not specify the
celery; but Salmon in his "English Physician " (1693) writing on
the virtues of Apium palustre, says: " It is either of the marsh, called
by the common name Smallage, or of the garden (made white and
crisp by laying earth upon it), called Sallary, as being used for a
salet-herb." In Wheeler's " Botanists' and Gardeners' Dictionary "
(1758) it is said: "A variety of it, called the Smallage, is seldom
cultivated in gardens. But there are two sorts found in the gardens,
distinguished by the names of the Italian Celleri and the Celleriac."

Miller, in his " Gardeners' Dictionary " (1771), says: " The fourth
sort is commonly known by the title of Smallage. This is what the
physicians intend when they prescribe Apium. This plant grows natu-
rally by the sides of brooks and ditches in many parts of England,
so is rarely cultivated in gardens." He then describes the fifth sort

46 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF OUR GARDEN VEGETABLES. .

as Apium dulce, the upright Celery, and A. rapacium, the Oeleriac
or turnip-rooted Celery. It should be remembered that the wild and
green plant is unwholesome, if not actually poisonous, but when
blanched all suspicious qualities are prevented from arising. In Malta
to-day the green tops are alone used, boiled, as the Maltese do not
blanch the leaf-stalks.

There is not much nutriment in Celery, as there is over 93 per
cent, of water. The chief constituents are sugar 2 per cent. , and starch
with mucilage 1*6, the mineral matters being 0'8 per cent. The
nutrient ratio is 1 :4*5, and the nutrient value less than 5.

CHARD.

We have seen under BEET that in ancient times and up to the
sixteenth century only the leaves were eaten, and that it was not till

FIG. 20. — Swiss CHARD OR SPINACH BEET (BURPEE).

the close of the sixteenth century that the root became an article of .diet.
With regard to Chard, I extract the following succinct account from
Mr. Booth's article in the " Treasury of Botany." " The large white
or Swiss chard Beet (B. cicla var.) is a very distinct variety, remarkable
for the thick midribs and stalks of its large upright leaves. It is the
Poir6e a Garde of the French, with whom it is a favourite vegetable
served as asparagus."

.The illustration (fig. 20) is a peculiarly .interesting form of Swiss
Chard or ''Spinach Beet" sent out by Mr. W. A. Burpee, Phila-
delphia. He calls it Lucullus, and describes the leaves as follows:
" The leaves are sharply pointed, the texture is heavily crumpled or
' savoyed . . . the leafy portion of the foliage is served as spinach,
the stalks being served separately."

GREEN VEGETABLES. 47

ONIONS -AND LEEK.

The following species of Allium, L., are cultivated: — The common
onion, A. Cepa, L. ; a nearly allied species, A. fi.stulosum, L., the
Welsh onion; A. sativum, L., the garlic, and a nearly allied form, the
sand leek or wild Rocambole, A. Scorodoprasum, L. ; the shallot, A.
Ascalonium, L. ; the chive, A. Schoenoprasum, L. ; the leek,' A. Am-
peloprasum, L. var. Porrum (genus, L.).

The sand leek, the wild leek, and chive are natives of Great Britain,
though the second appears to be naturalized on rocky banks (Hooker).

Allium Cepa, L., is said to grow wild in Baluchistan and neighbour-
ing countries, according to botanists quoted by De Candolle* ; but it has
been cultivated from time immemorial and spread over so many coun-
tries that it may have been apparently wild elsewhere. It has been used
as a spell in Chaldea, possibly 5000 B.c.f It was the Kormuon of Theo-
phrastus and the Caepa of Pliny, who observes with regard to the onion
in Egypt: " Garlic and onions are invoked by the Egyptians when
taking an oath, in the number of their deities." Juvenal, a contem-
porary of Pliny, wrote in his satirical manner, " While towns worship
the dog, but none Diana, to injure the leek and the onion is wicked, and
to crush them with the teeth — 0 Holy race ! whose gods are born in
the kitchen garden !" Another writer observes, " Water is the natural
deity of Egypt, but parochially it is the bull at Memphis and the onion
at Pelusium. The Egyptians have dared to place the leek and the onion
among the gods of the sky ; while some worship the crocodile, the cat,
the dog, wolf, and monkey, others, onions and garlic!" The proli-
ferous bulb-bearing " tree " onion was introduced from Canada in 1820.
The green bulbs which replace the flowers are useful for pickling.

" The strong smell and taste of onions, as of the garlic and the leek,
are due to a pungent volatile oil, rich in sulphur; but the quantity of
this oil is very minute. . . . Onions have a feeding value superior to
that of white turnips. Water amounts to 91 per cent., albuminoids,
1.5 per cent. ; mucilage, sugar, etc., 4.8 per cent. The nutrient ratio
is 1: 3.5, and the nutrient value lies between 6 and 7."

WELSH ONION (Allium fistulosum, L.). The name " Welsh " is
probably a corruption of " Walische " and "Walche," meaning
" foreign," as the walnut was called Walischenote in the fourteenth
century. This species differs from the common onion in having the
dilated part of the flower-stem in the middle and not at the base ; more-
over the alternate stamens are " trifid." " Russian botanists have found
this species wild in Siberia towards the Altai Mountains, on the lake
Baikal in the land of the Kirghis. " J It is known as the Rock Onion or
Stone Leek in Russia. It has been cultivated in Great Britain since
1629.§ At the present day it appears to be only grown, as the young

* Origin of Cultivated Plants, p. 67.
t " The Story of the Nations," Chaldea.

+ Ledebour, Flor. It ass. iv. p. 169; referred to by A. de Candolle, op. cit.
p. 68.

§ Treasury of Botany.

48 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF OUR GARDEN VEGETABLES.

spring onions, for salads. De Candolle regards Dodoens' figure of
Cepa oblonga as a . " hardly recognisable " one of A. fistulosum. His
figure in " Historia Stirpium " is named " Cepa " and evidently is
only the common onion and not the Welsh onion. It is figured in
Curtis' s Botanical Magazine, No. 1230, 1809.

GARLIC (Allium sativum, L.) is of great antiquity as a cultivated
plant, as indicated by the many names it possesses in different countries.
Our word comes from the Welsh garlleg. De Candolle has traced it
through many regions and gives the deserts of the Kirghis of Sungari,
in the S.W. of Siberia, as the only country with any degree of cer-
tainty, as its origin.* Herodotus says that an inscription was on the
great pyramid of Egypt in his day, stating that 1600 talents had been
paid for onions, radishes and garlic for the workmen who built it — prob-
ably about 3300 B.C.

Garlic is mentioned in several vocabularies of plants, from the
tenth to the fifteenth centuries, and described by the herbalists of the
sixteenth, from 1548 (Turner) onwards. Two British plants are
called " Garlic," the wild (A. oleracewn), and the Crow (A. vineale)',
both have been used either as pot-herbs or for flavouring. A third
species, A . ursinum, called Eansoms, has been eaten in times of
scarcity.

EOCAMBOLE (Allium Scorodoprasum, L.). This species most nearly
resembles the garlic, according to some authors; others make it very
distinct. It has been said to be "undoubtedly wild" in the Alpes-
Maritimes. Another botanist, Ledebour, says it is very common in
Bussia from Finland to the Crimea. ' The natural habitat," writes
De Candolle, "borders, therefore, on that of A. sativum; or else an
attentive study of all the forms will show that a single species, compris-
ing several varieties, extends over a great part of Europe and the
bordering countries of Asia. "*

It was not known to the ancients, and its names are chiefly distinc-
tive in northern countries, as Denmark, Sweden, Germany, where it
was called Rockenbolle, i.e. Bolle, onion, on rocks, Rocken. The
Eocambole is a British plant and sometimes called the Sand Leek; it
is found in Yorkshire and Lancashire to Fife and Perthshire, as well
as in Ireland.

SHALLOT (Allium Ascalonium, L.). Pliny, in remarking that the
Greeks have many kinds of onions, mentions " the Ascalonean, so
called from Ascalon, a city of Judaea." This name has been corrupted
to eclialote in French, chalote in Spanish, and changed to shallot in
English. De Candolle from his historical investigations is not led to
consider it as a species, especially as Theophrastus regarded it as a form
of A. Cepa, and there is no proof of its being wild anywhere. More-
over, it commonly has no flowers, being called Cepa sterilis by Bauhin.
This fact indicates a long cultivation by bulbs, as it produces many like
the garlic. De Candolle thinks it is a form of A. Cepa, dating from
about the beginning of the Christian era.

* Origin of Cultivated Plants, p. 63 ff.

GEEEN VEGETABLES.

49

CHIVE (Allium Schoenoprasum, L.). De Candolle observes, " This
species occupies an extensive area in the northern hemisphere. It is
found all over Europe from Corsica to Greece, to the south of Sweden,
in Siberia, as far as Kamschatka, and also in North America. The
variety found in the Alps is the nearest to the cultivated form." It is
also wild in the north and west counties of England and Wales. It was
probably known to the ancients, as it is wild in Greece and Italy. It is
figured by Dodosns, 1559, who gives the French name Petit poureau, as
the leaves somewhat resemble those of a rush. The specific name
means " rush-leek."

The LEEK (A. Ampeloprasum, L. var. Porrum) is a cultivated

Fin. 21. — WILD AND BULBOUS LEEKS OF MALTA, WITH CULTIVATED FORM FOR

COMPARISON.

form of the Linnean species, common in the Mediterranean region
(fig. 21) and Algeria. It was well known to the ancients. Pliny
observes that the Emperor Nero used to eat leeks and oil to im-
prove his voice, and that the best came from Egypt. It is mentioned
in Numbers (xi. 5) under a word, chatsir, meaning "to be green,"
but as it stands in the text with onions and garlic the leek was
probably meant, as with the others it was commonly grown in Egypt.
With regard to the cultivation, Pliny tells us " the seed is sown
thicker than otherwise. They are cut repeatedly till the bed is quite
exhausted. If they are wanted to bulb before being cut, when
they have grown to some size they are transplanted to another bed."

50 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF OUR GARDEN VEGETABLES.

The wild leek is bulbous, but under cultivation it produces no bulb ;
occasionally, however, it has one by "reversion," probably by
growing in a too dry soil. Both Gerard (1597) and Parkinson (1640)
figure it as bulbous. An Italian herbalist, C. Durante (1636), figures
it with a straight, non-bulbous stem; so perhaps the modern form
originated in South Europe. Linnaeus gives Holme Island in the
Bristol Channel as a locality. This is where the scarlet paeony is
also to be found, both being South European plants. It grows
sparingly in the fields of Malta, whence those figured were taken.
The cultivated bulbless leek is shown beside them for comparison
with the original wild, bulbous plant.

PEA (Pisum sativum, L.).

The garden pea is not quite wild, though the field pea is a native
of South Europe, from which it was possibly, if not probably, derived.
Our earliest allusion to it is the discovery by Heer of peas in the lake-
dwellings of the Age of Bronze in Switzerland and in Savoy ; being
recognized by the spherical form, like that of the wild field pea. De
Candolle says there is no indication of the cultivation of the pea in
ancient Egypt or India. He concludes as follows: — "The species
seems to have existed in Western Asia before it was cultivated. The
Aryans introduced it into Europe. It no longer exists in the wild state,
and when it occurs half -wild, it is not said to have a modified form so
as to approach some other species." The wild pea of South Europe and
the cultivated in Egypt have rich crimson " wings," and the flowers
are produced singly. The garden pea bears many on one main flower-
stalk, perhaps the result of cultivation. The pea was well known to the
ancient Greeks and Eomans, Pliny remarking that it cannot stand cold,
" Hence in Italy and the more rigorous climates it is sown in spring
only." Pliny mentions a variety which appears to correspond with
the modern, so-called Mummy pea, which has only a somewhat fasciated
stem so that the peduncles are clustered together.* Gerard figures it
under the name Pisum umbellatum, " the tufted or Scottish Pease."
He says " they are like unto those of the fielde, or of the garden, in
each respect ; the difference consisteth onely in that, this plant carieth
his flowers in a round tuft or umble. . . . It is not very common. " He
figures four kinds. The first is the P. mams, Eowncivall Pease, " The
flower of which is white and hath about the middle of it a purple spot. "
This appears to correspond with our field pea ; but Gerard calls P. minus
" garden and field pease, " only adding, " The fielde pease is so very well
knowne to all, that it were a needlesse labour to spende time about the
description." Hence he means our garden pea. The third is the
" tufted " and the fourth, P. excorticatum , " Pease without skins in the
cods." He thus describes it:—" They differ not from the precedent,
saving that the cods heereof want that tough skinny membrane in the

* The story that they were derived from the tombs of Egypt is a fiction.
No peas have ever been found in them ; as Brugsch Pacha informed me himself
jn the Museum at Gezireh, Cairo,

GEEEN VEGETABLES. 51

same, which the hogs cannot eate by reason of the toughnesse ; whereas
the other may be eaten cods and all the rest, same as kidney beanes
are, which being so dressed, are exceeding delicate meate." This
variety is still in cultivation and known as the " sugar-pea." It is
not known when the garden or the field pea was introduced intc
England, but Turner figures it (1568), and Gerard adds a figure of the
now so-called " Mummy pea."

Mr. W. B. Booth says :— " In Queen Elizabeth's time (about 1570),
we are told, they were occasionally brought from Holland and con-
sidered a ' dainty dish for ladies.' For many years their culture does
not appear to have been much attended to, but after the restoration of
Charles II., in 1660, the taste for green peas became fashionable."

Peas, like other leguminous plants, are highly nitrogenous. Prof.
Church gives albuminoids 22.4 per cent., starch 51.3 per cent., and
mineral matters 3 per cent. The nutrient ratio is 1 : 2.5; the nutrient
value, 79.

EHUBARB.

The garden rhubarb is botanically Rheum Rhaponticum , L. It is
stated that it grows in Thrace and Scythia; Mr. W. B. Booth (in the
' Treasury of Botany ") adds by the river Volga (the ancient name of
which was Rha), and gives 1573 as the earliest date of its cultivation
in this country; and that in Queen Elizabeth's time " the leaves were
used as a pot-herb and considered superior to spinach or beet ; but it was
only at the beginning of the nineteenth century that the stalks were
used for tarts," etc. Mr. A. Forsyth suggested the use of the un-
opened flowering bud or inflorescence within its bracts, to be cooked as
the stalks are. They possess a milder flavour and form a delicate
dish.* With regard to the edible leaf-stalks Professor Church ob-
serves, " The chief nutrient in rhubarb is the sugar (glucose), which
amounts to 2 per 'cent, of the fresh stalks. Its sour taste is due to
oxalic acid, or rather to the acid oxalate of potash; oxalate of lime is
also present. The following are the principal features: Water 95.1
per cent., albuminoids 0.9 per cent., sugar 2.1 per cent., oxalic acid
0.3 per cent. He adds : " As 1 Ib. of rhubarb contains less than 1 oz.
of solid matter, of which ^ only is nutritive, it is obvious that the
food value is very small. "

SEA-KALE (Crambe maritima, L.).

This is not at all common, but occurs in the sandy shores of Eng-
land and the continent. It was eaten by the ancients, for Pliny thus
speaks of it. ' ' There is a kind of cabbage known by the name Halmy-
ridia, because growing only on the seashore. It will keep green and
fresh during a long sea voyage, put into oil-vessels lately dried. Nitre
preserves the greenness when cooked, a result which is equally ensured
by the Apician mode of boiling, or in other words', by steeping the plants
in oil and salt before they are cooked." This is somewhat suggestive of
" sour-kraut, " The first herbalist of the 16th century to distinguish

* Gardeners' Chrenicle, 1846, p. 5.

52 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF OUR GARDEN VEGETABLES.

this plant and figure it was Lobel (1576), under the name Bmssica
marina monosperma; Brassica being the true cabbage with a long pod
containing many seeds ; whereas the sea-kale has only one. He says
that Turner suggested the name; but no mention of it is in his " Names
of Herbes " (1548) nor in his " Herbal " (1568) where Brassica marina
(as in other herbals) means the Convolvulus Soldanella. Gerard (1597)
describes it as B. marina Anglica, as if it were a native only of Eng-
land, but Hooker states its continental distribution is — " Coasts from
Finland to the Bay of Biscay and the Black Sea." Gerard does not
describe any use for it. Parkinson is the first to illustrate the charac-
teristic globular, one-seeded pods. Mr. W. B. Booth says: — "It
appears to have been known to the Eomans, who gathered it in the
wild state and preserved it in barrels for use during long voyages.
From a remote period it has been used in this country by residents near
the sea. ... It was sold in Chichester in 1753. It was not known
about London until 1767, when Dr. Lettsom cultivated it at Camberwell
and was the first to bring it into notice. " *

Sea-kale contains upwards of 93 per cent, of water, 1.4 per cent, of
albuminoids, 3.8 per cent, of mucilage and starch, &c., and 0.6 of
mineral matter.

SPINACH (Spinacia oleracea, L.).

Spinach is first figured and described by Turner (1568). He
writes: — " Spinage or Spinech is an herbe lately found and not- long
in use, but it is so wel knowen amongest al men in al countreas that it
nedeth no description." He only alludes to its supposed medicinal
virtues. It is said to be a native of West Asia. Gerard (1597)
describes it as a medicinal ' ' pot-herb ' ' ; but adds that "it is eaten
boiled. . . and is used in sallades when it is young and tender."
' ' Prickly ' ' and ' ' Bound ' ' spinach are two varieties of the above.

Spinach contains much nitre and is a wholesome vegetable. There
is 90 per cent, of water, 1.2 of albuminoids, 4.0 of carbohydrates, 2.0 of
mineral matter.

SPINACH, NEW ZEALAND (Tetragonia expansa).

Closely allied to Mesem-bryanthemum, this plant is a native of
Tasmania, Australia, and of South America as well as New Zealand,
implying a probable early connexion by means of an Antarctic con-
tinent; for the depth of the ocean decreases northwards in the direc-
tion of the southern extremities of existing land; several species of
the genus being found at the Cape. It is said to have been introduced
by Sir Jos. Banks in 1772. The leaves are thick and used as a
substitute for spinach, but the mucilage in the leaves is somewhat
objectionable.

VEGETABLE MARROW.

A. de Candolle considered that botanical indications were in favour
of a Mexican or Texan origin. In Gerard's " Herbal " (1597) there is a
* The Treasury of Botany, s.v. Crambe,

GREEN VEGETABLES.

53

figure (fig. 22) which he calls the Spanish cucumber; raised from seed,
" not long since sent out from Spain." It grows, he adds, to a foot
in length, is green below, but yellow in the sun, with spots and lines
of divers colours, but it is represented smooth, and not rough like a
cucumber. The Spaniards might well have received this from Mexico.
The figure would answer very well for a vegetable marrow, now known
as Cucurbita ovifera, L., and if A. de Candolle be correct, it may be
an American variety of Cucurbita Pepo, the pumpkin ; while the gourds
of Europe are forms of C. maxima.

FIG. 22. — VEGETABLE MARROW FROM GERARD'S "HERBAL" (MISCALLED
CUCUMBER), 1597.

Many small forms of fruits are cultivated of various shapes, as the
Turk's Cap, and being forms of the species C. verrucosa, some are
warted; others are globular, pear or bottle-shaped, and of different
colours — some of these were figured by Parkinson (1640). Professor
Church says of the vegetable marrow that " although ine fruit is
very watery, yet it contains more nutritive matter than its close ally
the cucumber. The percentages are as follows: — Water 94.8, albu-
minoids 0.6, sugar, starch, fat and cellulose, 4.1; mineral matter, 0.5.
The nutrient ratio is 1 :5, the nutrient value 3.5.

54 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF OUR GARDEN VEGETABLES.

CHAPTER VI.

SALAD HEEBS.

CHESS, BITTER.

THIS, one of our commonest weeds in gardens, &c., is a small annual
member of the family Cruciferae, Cardamine hirsuta, L., and like
all members of this family it is perfectly wholesome. It has been
cultivated and improved, so is now used as a salad plant. It is allied
to the Cuckoo-flower or Lady's Smock (C. pratensis, L.).

CRESS, GARDEN.

No one appears to know for certain whence the garden cress
(Lepidium sativum of Linnaeus, who gives no locality) came. M. A. de
Candolle, after having exhausted his researches, thinks, by an
" assemblage of more or less doubtful facts [statements?], that the
plant is of Persian origin, whence it may have spread into the gardens
of India, Syria, Greece, and Egypt."

Dioscorides said that the herb came from Babylon, and Pliny
adds that in Arabia it is said " to attain to a size that is quite mar-
vellous." It was cultivated for its seed, and used as a dried herb under
the name of Cardamon by the Greeks, and Nasturtium by the Romans
— the former name on account of its good influence upon the heart
(kardia), and the latter because of its pungent odour, causing one to
make a wry face or " nose-twisting," as nasitortuum implies. Hence,
in the sixteenth century it had the name in France of Nasitort.

It occurs in Middle Age vocabularies as Ccerse (tenth century),
Kersens or Cressens (thirteenth century), toncarsyn (i.e. town-carsyn)
(fourteenth century).

Pliny records numerous complaints for which cress was used, as
it was valued only as a medicinal plant.

In the sixteenth century we find it used as a salad plant. Thus
Dodoens observes : ' ' Cresses eaten in sallet with lettuce is of vertue
like to rocket and good amongst cold hearbes." We see here how it,
like many other plants, passed from purely medicinal to culinary
uses, as salads. Gerard also observes (1597) that " Galen saith that
cresses may bee eaten with bread veluti obsonium [i.e. as food
(especially fish) that was eaten with bread], as the Lowe Countrie-
men many times do, who commonly use to feede of cresses with bread
and butter. It is eaten with other sallade herbes as Tarragon and
Rocket; and for this cause it is chiefly sowen."

It is not known when the seedlings were first eaten as now, arid

GREEN VEGETABLES. 55

not the herb more fully grown. There were smooth and crisped-
leaved sorts, both broad-leaved and narrow-leaved.

CRESS, WATER.

This plant was regarded as a kind of Sisymbrium by Dioscorides.
His commentator, Matthiolus, calls it S. aquaticum, " being endowed
with the same taste as our Ores do," or the " cultivated nasturtium "
(1574). The French called it Cresson de ruisseau. Hence came our
English name; but in the sixteenth century it was also called " Water-
Kars."

Its use was at first wholly medicinal, being subsequently recom-
mended in salads. Linnaeus retained the generic name Sisymbrium,
calling it S. Nasturtium, but Eobert Brown restored the latter name
to generic rank, adding officinale as the specific name, so that it became
Nasturtium officinale.

Professor Church observes of the water-cress, " The dietetic value
cannot be judged of by the proportion or amount of organic nutrients
present, as it depends mainly upon the quantity of mineral matters,
aromatic oil, and other minor ingredients."

CORN SALAD OR LAMB'S LETTUCE.

This plant is a member of the Valerian family, Valerianella olitoria.
It is found in corn-fields and hedge-banks, and has been long used as a
salad plant. Thus Gerard (1597) writes : — " These herbes grow wilde
in the corne fields, and since it hath growne in use among the French
and Dutch strangers it hath beene sowen in gardens as a sallad herbe.
It is with pleasure eaten with vinegar, salt and oil, as other sallads
be, among which it is none of the worst."

At the present day it is more used on the Continent than in
England. A golden-leaved variety is cultivated. M. de Candolle
thinks that it is truly indigenous only in Sardinia and Sicily, as no
name is traceable in Greek and Latin authors, or in the Middle Ages.
In fact the cultivation of it appears to be comparatively modern.

CHICORY AND ENDIVE.

These names correspond to the two species Cichorium Intybus,
L. (fig. 23), and C. Endivia, L. (fig. 24). The former is a native,
especially on calcareous soils, of England, and wild in Europe, West
Africa and east North- West India ; the endive is still found in the corn-
fields of Egypt. They were probably two of the plants included in
the " bitter herbs " of the Israelites, for they belong to the tribe
Cichoriaceae of Composites, characterized by a very bitter milky juice,
as in the dandelion and other allies.

The chicory is a tall plant with large blue flowers borne on a wiry
stem, and " runcinate " leaves, i.e. having the marginal lobes pointing
downwards, as in the dandelion, whereas the leaves of the endive are
large, oval, and merely toothed on the margin.

56

ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF OUR GARDEN VEGETABLES.

The chicory was called xc-rix by the ancient Greeks, arid Intubum
by the Eomans. This word appears to have been corrupted to hindeb in
Arabic and " endive " in English. Though looked upon as a medicinal
herb, Pliny observes that " the wild endive has certain refreshing
qualities, and is used as an aliment." Ovid also mentioned it as a
salad plant.

Having been originally introduced into Europe from Egypt,
it spread as a garden herb from Italy, and was first received in England
before 1548, when Turner speaks of two sorts of Intybus, the culti-
vated and the wild. " The former is the white and garden endive; the
wild also has two sorts, cichorium and the dandelion." Other writers

FIG. 23. — WILD CHICORY. One-eighth natural size.

of the sixteenth century describe the crisped-leaved as well as the broad-
and narrow-leaved varieties. The former resembles the wild form of
Egypt to-day, the latter our wild runcinate species.

These differences are due to the nature of the soil and climate,
just as the horseradish, dandelion, &c., vary greatly in the form
of the leaf according to the soil in which they grow. At the present
day C. Intybus is cultivated in Paris under the name Barbe de
Capucin, and consists of elongated, very narrow leaves, being little
else than the mid-rib, which is blanched. Witloof, or Brussels
chicory, is derived from the variety with broader leaves. M. H. L.
de Vilmorin * remarks, "It is noticeable that in all leaves developed

* Saladings (JOURNAL R.H.S., 1890, March 25, p. 260).

SALAD HERBS. 57

in darkness the rib seems to attain its normal size, while the leaf-
blade itself is greatly reduced in breadth. This fact is particularly
striking in Witloof , where the head seems to be made up almost entirely
of the imbricated leaves." He adds, ''The eatable part of Witloof is
4 to 5 inches long, not quite 2 inches across, in the shape of the head
of a small cos lettuce; it is almost pure white, very solid and firm."

Messrs. Button's ' Combination ' or Christmas Salad has the interior
leaves runcinate and the outer entire, forming a combination of Barbe
ile Capucin and Witloof.

FIG. 24. — WILD ENDIVE FROM A CORN-FIELD, EGYPT.

Endive, notwithstanding its being blanched, retains a good deal of
its bitterness. " It contains in 100 parts: 94 of water, 1 of albu-
minoids, 1 of sugar, 2 of starch, &c., and 0.8 of mixed matter," so
that it has no nutrient value of any consequence.

CUCUMBER.

Cucumis sativus is now believed to be the cultivated form of
C. Hardwiclcii, Royle, wild from Kumoon to Sikkim. It has been
cultivated in India for some three thousand years, and spread weet:
wards. The Greek name was sikuos. Pliny describes the Italian
fruit as " very small," probably like our " gherkin "; the same form
is figured in herbals of the sixteenth century, but " those grown in
some of the provinces are remarkably large and of a wax colour or
black " ; by this Pliny means dark green. Gardeners to-day speak of

58 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF OUR GARDEN VEGETABLES.

black mint in the same sense. He describes their long shape and adds,
" If hung in a tube while in blossom the cucumber will grow to a
most surprising length."

Pliny tells us that the cucumber was so great a favourite with the
Emperor Tiberius that he raised beds made in frames upon wheels by
means of which the cucumbers were moved and exposed to the full
heat of the sun, while in winter they were withdrawn and placed
under the protection of frames glazed with " mirror-stone," probably
a thin layer of selenite, a crystallized form of gypsum, which can be
split into thin translucent slices.

Gerard (1597) so described the cucumber: "the fruit is long,
cornered, rough, and set forth with certaine bumpes or risings, wherein

FIG. 25. — COMMON CUCUMBER, FROM GERARD'S " HERBAL," 1597.

is contained a firme and solide pulpe or substance, transparent or
thorow shining; which togither with the seede is eaten a little before
they be fully ripe." His illustration (fig. 25) of the plant shows
cucumbers like our young gherkins.

The dietary value is practically nothing, there being upwards of
96 per cent, of water.

DANDELION.

This familiar wild flower (Taraxacum officinale, Web.) is now
cultivated and blanched for saladings. It has long been regarded as a
useful drug and still is included in existing Pharmacopoeias. It does
not appear to have been grown as a salad plant till quite modern
times.

SALAD HERBS. 59

The Dandelion (from dens leonis, lion's tooth, in reference to the
leaf) was called Caput monachi or " prestis croune " in the fourteenth
century. Linnaeus named it Leontodon Taraxacum. As it is widely
spread over north and south temperate regions, it was probably, with
endive, one of the " bitter herbs " of Scripture. A very small and
starved variety grows on the rocks and walls of Valetta in Malta.

LETTUCE.

Several plants were included under the name Lactuca by the
Romans, and the Greeks distinguished several kinds of thridax and
thridakine, as they called the lettuce; though the Latin name appears
to be derived from the Greek word galaktouchos, "having milk."
This is the characteristic feature of the section of Composites known
as Cichoriaceae, to which the dandelion, lettuce, chicory, &c., belong.
The ancients recognized several varieties in colour — black, brown,
white, purple, red and blood-red — but whether they all belonged to
our garden lettuce is doubtful. This is believed to have been derived
from the species L. Scariola, L., a rare British plant, but widely
distributed over Europe, and Siberia, to the Himalayas.

Pliny refers to the " crisped " and a " squat " variety, probably
like our cabbage lettuce. These were known as crispa and capitata
in the sixteenth century, and have been grown ever since. " Lettuces
contain but little nutriment of any kind except mineral salts, especially
nitre. ... A small quantity of sleep-producing substance, called
lactucarin, is found in the stem." (Church.)

MUSTARD.

We have two species of mustard, the white (Brassica alba, Boiss.),
with yellow seeds, and the black, with brown ones (B. nigra, Koch),
both being indigenous. To these Pliny adds a third, probably
B. eruco'ides, L., the " rocket-leaved " mustard. He thus describes
mustard : ' ' It has so pungent a flavour that it burns like fire, though at
the same time it is remarkably wholesome for the body, the leaves
being boiled as those of other vegetables." The reader will recall the
references to mustard in the Gospels. With regard to these Dr. W. M.
Thomson, in his book, The Land and the Book, observes: "I have
seen this plant on the rich plain of Akk&r as tall as the horse and his
rider." The black mustard grows in the hedges, &c., near St. Ives,
Cornwall, quite five feet in height.

The only culinary use in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteentn
(to 1730, Tournefort) centuries was as " sauce " with vinegar to " help
digestion." In the fourteenth century it was known as " Senevy,"
probably a corruption of Sinapis, the old Latin name. In a recipe for
the palsy we read: " Take barly-bred and no outher, and ete potage
that is made of Seneuye, that ys an herbe that men maketh mostard
ther-of, ..."

Mixed with vinegar it was used as a mustard pJ ast-er by the ancients
for the stings of serpents and scorpions. " The pungent essential oil

60 OEIGIN AND HISTORY OF OUR GARDEN VEGETABLES.

is not produced till the ground seeds are wetted." The ordinary con-
diment is derived from the black mustard, as " the seeds of B. alba
do not yield a pungent oil, but only a non- volatile rubef acient. "
(Church.) Many acres of the yellow-seeded mustard (B. alba) are,
however, cultivated for Messrs. Colman near Wisbech.

PURSLANE.

Portulaca oleracea, L., is a very widespread little fleshy-leaved
plant with minute yellow flowers. It spreads itself on the surface of
the ground, but there is a variety with an upright stem. Both are
cultivated in Europe. It is occasionally grown in England as a salad-
plant or for pickling. There are three varieties, known as the green,
golden, and large-leaved golden. Gerard (1597) figures the " wild "
with small leaves and the " garden " purslane with much larger ones.
Besides its medicinal uses, he says it was " much used in sallads with
oile, salt and vineger."

SAMPHIRE.

The samphire (Crithmum maritimum, L.) on the rocks round our
coasts was known to the Greeks as Krithmon or Krithamon and as
Crithmum to the Romans. The English name is derived from
St. Pierre — i.e. St. Peter's herb. This was corrupted into " sampier "
(sixteenth century); thence into "samphire." It was probably so
called from growing on rocks, petra being the Greek for rock and petros
a stone. Turner, an early writer of the sixteenth century, says it was
first used as medicine " sodden in wine," then " both raw and sodden
and eaten as a worte or a common rnete herb, that is eaten in sallet or
otherwise. It is kept in bryne. ' '

Other herbalists of the same century repeat the above uses. The
marsh samphire (Salicornia herbacea) of our salt-marshes is sometimes
substituted for the true samphire, but it is much inferior. Its main use
was for making barilla, an impure carbonate of soda, obtained by
burning the dried plant.

SORREL.

This was called Oxalis or Acetosa in the sixteenth century, but
now is regarded as a species of dock, Rumex Acetosa, L. Besides its
medicinal uses, Gerard observes: "The juice in summer-time is a
profitable sauce in many meates and pleasant to the taste. It mooveth
appetite to meate. The leaves may be sodden and eaten in manner of
a Spinnach tart or as meate." Since the French sorrel, R. scutatus,
was introduced the British species has fallen in repute, for the former
has more succulent leaves. Paxton, in his Botanical Dictionary, gives
1596 as the year of its introduction.

TOMATO.

This now familiar fruit is produced by Lycopersicum esculentum,
Tourn., one of ten species, natives of South America, mainly Peru. It
has been introduced into many warm countries, arriving in Europe in

SALAD HERBS. 61

the close of the sixteenth century (1596). M. A. de Candolle shows,
from a total absence of all knowledge of the tomato in Asia, that it
could not have been a native of that continent ; on the other hand, all
positive evidence points to Peru, and the small-fruited L. cerasiforme,
wild on the Peruvian shore, is the most probable origin of it.

The peculiar ribbed form of the fruit first grown in this country
was due to a malformation called a " multifold " flower, in which the
usual number of parts is much augmented. Modern cultivators now
grow the normal globular form.

62 OEIGIN AND HISTOKY OF OUR GARDEN VEGETABLES.

CHAPTEE VII.
KITCHEN HEEBS.
ANGELICA.

THIS is not our English Angelica sylvestris, L., But an allied species,
A. Archangelica, L., an occasional outcast of gardens, and a native
of Iceland and Norway (Gerard), as well as other European regions.
Gerard says it was very common in gardens in his time (1597). Like
other strongly scented plants it was regarded as a preventive against
the plague. He says it was eaten, except by Icelanders, in times of
scarcity. At the present day ring-like sections of the green stem are
preserved in sugar and used to adorn cakes, &c. The leaves have been
eaten like celery as a vegetable, and the fruits are employed in flavour-
ing some cordials, as Chartreuse.

ANISE.

Anise (Anison of Dioscorides and Anisum of Pliny) was well known
to the ancients. It is said to have been found wild in " Candye, the
best, and the next in Egypt." (Turner, 1548.) It is now known
botanically as Pimpinella Anisum, L. Besides its sixty-one remedies
referred to by Pliny — " being taken in wine, either raw or boiled for
the stings of scorpions. . . . Both green and dried it is held in high
repute as an ingredient in all seasonings and sauces, and is also placed
beneath the undercrust of bread." The leaves are now occasionally
used for seasoning, and for flavouring cordials, as the fruit contains
about 2 per cent, of an essential oil (Church).

BALM.

The botanical name of balm is Melissa officinalis, L., from the
Greek word for a bee — doubtless in reference to its honey. It is a
native of Middle and South Europe and West Asia, but only naturalized
in England. It smells strongly of lemon, is carminative and
stomachic. The leaves have been employed in claret-cup and "balm
wine." It is also used in certain liqueurs and perfumes. It was
well known as a drug-plant in the sixteenth century and called Bawruc,
and in Italian Cedronella, from the citaxm-like smell. Dodoens
(1578) observed, " If a man put Bawme into Bee-hives, or else if the
hives be rubbed therewithal, it keepeth Bees together, and causeth
other Bees to resort to their company."

KITCHEN HEEBS. 63

BASIL.

Two species of basil are cultivated, the " Bush Green " and the
" Sweet Green," the former is Ocimum * minimum, L., and the latter
0. Basilicum, L., both being natives of India. They were introduced
into England in 1573 and 1548 respectively.

The sixteenth-century herbalists, as well as Tournefort (1730), only
refer to its supposed medicinal virtues, which Parkinson is inclined to
consider to be of little value (1640).

At the present time the leafy shoots, being strongly scented, are
used for seasoning.

BORAGE.

This plant was probably known to the ancients under the Greek
and Latin name for " Ox-tongue " (Bouglossos and Buglossd) The
following remark of Pliny most probably refers to Borage, " the main
peculiarity of this plant is, that if put into wine, it promotes mirth and
hilarity, whence it has obtained the additional name of euphrosynum,"
i.e. 'promoting cheerfulness.' The present Latin name is Borago
officinalis, L.

Gerard (1597) observes: "Those of our time do use the flowers
in salads to exhilarate and make the mind glad, to the comfort of
the heart and driving away of sorrow."

It is still employed in claret-cup, &c. It is a common roadside
weed in Malta, and extends from Middle and South Europe to West
Africa.

BURNET.

Garden or salad Burnet is botanically Poterium Sanguisorba, L.
The name is derived from the Latin word poterium, a goblet, as the
foliage, tasting somewhat like cucumber, was put into the so-called
" cool tankard."

In the sixteenth century the Burnet was called Pimpinella or
Bipennula, from the two rows of leaflets. One botanist, Gesner, sug-
gested it should be called " Peponella, because of its smell like
Melons or Pompions, to which it is like." Besides several medicinal
uses, Gerard says, " The leaves of Burnet steeped in wine and drunken,
doth comfort the hart, and maketh it merrie. "

CARAWAY.

Carum Carui, L. , is not a native, but is occasionally naturalized
from cultivation. Hooker gives its distribution as Northern Europe,
North and West Asia, and Himalaya. Gerard says that " Caruwaies
grew almost everywhere in Germanic and in Bohemia; and took its
name from Caria, where Dioscorides said it grew. The seeds are
confected or made with sugar into comfits." Besides possessing

* The ancient herbalist distinguished between Ocimum and Ocymum :
as the latter name was given by Tragus to the Buckwheat, from its rapid ger-
mination? ok us in Greek meaning " quick."

64 OKI GIN AND HISTORY OF OUK GARDEN VEGETABLES.

medicinal virtues, we use them now for cakes; but in the sixteenth
century it was written, " the stalkes, when they come first up, are
wonderful pleasant, eaten in a sallet unsodden. And the herbe serveth
to make swete and well savored potage " (Turner, 1578). The fruits,
" caraway seeds " of commerce, contain an essential oil and are now
used for flavouring cakes, confectionery and cordials.

CHAMOMILE.

This familiar domestic drug-plant (Anthemis nobilis, L.) used as
a " tea " for its tonic properties, is a native, chiefly round the coasts.
The flower-heads of the cultivated " double " form are used, the wild
being too bitter. The aromatic scent is due to an essential oil; but as
the " single " heads are stronger in this respect, this is the form
employed in medicine.

The " Wild Chamomile " belongs to a different genus, being
Matricaria Chamomilla , L. Though not used here, it is on the Con-
tinent.

CLARY AND SAGE.

Salvia Sclarea and S. officinalis, both South European plants, and
cultivated for seasoning. Gerard (1597) describes and figures several
species, besides our two English Salvias under the names Gallitricum
and Horminum. It was called Cleereeie because, " The seede of
Clarie poudered, finely searced [sifted or cleansed] and mixed with
honie, taketh away the dimnesse of the eies and cleereth the sight."

With onions, &c., sage forms a well-known " stuffing."

CORIANDER.

Coriandrum sativum, L., is wild in South Europe, but has long
been cultivated. It will be recalled that the manna was described as
round like coriander seed. The fruit, unlike that of most of the
members of the Umbellifer family, is globular and not elongated, as in
caraway, &c. It is aromatic, like so many others, and has been used
for flavouring salads, soups, &c., as well as liqueurs, and in confec-
tionery.

DILL.

Anethum graveolens, L. Wild in Spain and South Europe, this has
long been used as a condiment. Taylor, who first translated the Bible
into English in the sixteenth century, made an error in writing
" Anise " for Dill (in Greek it is Aneihori). At the present day Dill
is used as " Dill Water " for infants, as well as occasionally in soups,
sauces and pickles, &c.

FENNEL.

Foeniculum officinal?, All., is a native of our coasts from North
Wales to Cornwall, and from Norfolk to Kent; and from South Europe
to India. In Malta there is a xerophytic variety, with more rigid and
pointed leaf-segments, as well as the normal form, The name is

KITCHEN HERBS. 65

from fenum, hay. It was well-known to the ancients, Pliny accord-
ing twenty-two remedies to it. He observes that serpents taste it
" when they cast their old skins, and that they sharpen their sight
with the juice by rubbing against the plant."

Together with the St. John's-wort, it used to be hung over doors to
warn evil spirits. Like several other Umbellifers, it is carminative, as
is Dill, and was used in several drugs in the Middle Ages. Gerard
(1597) only refers to medicinal uses. Parkinson (1640) appears to
think that its culinary use was derived from Italy ; for he says : —
" The leaves, seede and rootes are both for meate and medicine; the
Italians especially doe much delight in the use thereof, and therefore
transplant and whiten it, to make it more tender to please the taste,
which being sweete and somewhat hot helpeth to digest the crude
qualitie of Fish and other viscous meats. We use it to lay upon Fish
or to boyle it therewith and with divers other things, as also the seede
in bread and other things."

HOREHOUND.

Marrubium vulgare, L. — The common or white Horehound is a
native, but also widely dispersed over Europe. It was formerly used
in various ways as a drug-plant, but is now only grown for a beverage
and a remedy for coughs, and as a seasoning plant.

HYSSOP.

The modern Hyssop is Hyssopus officinalis, L., a native of South
Europe. It was only used as a drug formerly, but now young shoote
are sometimes employed as a pot-herb. It is often mentioned in the
Bible, but it cannot for certain be known what Labiate it was. Pro-
bably more than one were used.*

ICE-PLANT.

Mesembryanthemum crystallinum, L., a native of the Canaries,
is so called from the innumerable bladdery hairs filled with water
which give the plant a frosty appearance. It is used for table decora-
tions. It was first introduced in 1775. The generic name was given
because it only flowers in great sunshine or the " middle of the day."

LAVENDER.

Lavandula vera (Spica, L.), a native of South Europe, and allied
species, were well known to the ancients for their perfume, the name
being derived from lavo, to "wash," as it was used in baths. It was
introduced in 1568. Its uses as a perfume are familiar to all.

MARJORAM.

Pot Marjoram is a shrubby species, Origanum Onites, L., of South
Europe, Onitis having been both the Greek and Latin name. The
Sweet Marjoram is 0. Majorana, L., of North Africa. Both are used

* See Plants of the Bible (Bagster).

F

66 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF OUR GARDEN VEGETABLES.

for seasoning and soups. The British species, 0. vulgare, L., is also
aromatic and has likewise been used.

MINT.

The garden mint, Mentha viridis, L., is a cultivated form of M. syl-
vestris, L., the Horse-mint, which is recorded as cultivated at Aleppo.
Either M. sylvestris or some form approaching M. viridis, which is not
known as a truly wild plant, was probably the mint of Scripture. It is
a favourite plant in association with peas and in pea-soup.

PENNYROYAL.

This is Mentha Pulegium, L., a native of England and South
Europe. It was formerly in great repute for its supposed medicinal
virtues, and is still employed as a domestic remedy.

PARSLEY.

Petroselinum sativum, Hoff., is the common Parsley in Bentham's
' Handbook ' and Carum Petroselinum, Benth., in Hooker's Student's
Flora.* According to the former it is a native of Eastern Mediter-
ranean regions, its old name being Macedonicum. De Candolle gives
Turkey, Algeria, and the Lebanon.

The ancients distinguished between two plants under the name
Selinon, one being the celery (Apium graveolens) and called heleio-
selinon — i.e. "Marsh selinon" — and the other, our parsley, Oreo-
selinon, "Mountain selinon1'; or petroselinon, meaning "Bock
selinon." It was the last name from which Parsley is derived, for
in the middle ages Petroselinum became corrupted into Petrocilium.
This was Anglicized into Petersylige and Petersile. This became
Persy lie, Persely, and finally parsley.

In the sixteenth century the parsley was known as Apium hor-
tense, but the herbalists retained, as the official name, Petroselinum.
A variety crispum was grown, as it is to-day, being even mentioned
by Pliny. Camerarius in 1588 calls it Apium verum, and says it was
the plant which the ancients used for crowning the victors in the
Nemean games and also for decorating tombs.

Linnaeus (in 1764) named it Apium Petroselinum, and gives
Sardinia as its wild habitat.

It was not introduced into England before 1548. Several varieties
now exist. No mention appears to have been made by the ancients
or in the Middle Ages of the variety with an enlarged tap-root, but
Miller in his Dictionary calls it "the large-rooted Parsley."! The
tap-root grows to a considerable length and is ^ inch in diameter, and
under cultivation it has developed both a parsnip-like as well as a
turnip-shaped form. Miller says (in 1771) : " This is now pretty com-
monly sold in the London markets, the roots being six times as large

* Hence Bentham has not kept to his own name.

t His definition is " Foliis radicalibus trifidis, serratis ; petiolis longissimis " ;
vrhich agrees with the parsley.

KITCHEN HEEBS. 67

as the common Parsley. This sort was many years cultivated in
Holland before the English gardeners could be prevailed upon to sow
it. I brought the seeds of it from thence in 1727 ; but they refused to
accept it, so that I cultivated it several years before it was known in
the markets."

At the present day the ' ' long white ' ' and the ' ' round sugar ' '
forms, known as the Hamburg Parsley, are sold by seed-growers,
being much esteemed for flavouring soups, stews, &c.

In England parsley is only found wild as an escape from gardens.
It is used as a garnish and sauce, as well as fresh and dried for
flavouring.

ROSEMARY.

Rosmarinus officinalis, L., is a south European plant of dry
Localities, as on rocky ground in Malta, and was well known to the
ancients as a drug-plant. It was introduced in 1548 for making
" Rosemary Tea " for nervous headaches. It was called Libanotis
by Dioscorides from its perfume having some resemblance to that of
frankincense. It is now used for seasoning as well as for its scent.
Narbonne honey is said to derive its flavour from rosemary.

RUE.

Ruta graveolens, L., is a native of South Europe, and introduced
in 1562. Being very strong-scented, it was regarded as an important
medicinal plant. Pliny mentions some four score remedies, and it
has been highly valued ever since, being still retained in our Phar-
macopoeia. Though the taste is exceedingly disagreeable to us, Pliny
says that " the ancients held rue in peculiar esteem; for I find that
honeyed wine flavoured with rue \vas distributed to the people in his
consulship by Cornelius Cethegus." This plant, with others, was used
as a preventive of the plague, and together with Southernwood was
always put in front of the dock in former days to ward off jail-fever.
Italians eat the leaves as a salad.

SAVORY.

Summer Savory is Satureja hortensis, L., and Winter Savory
S. montana, L. They were introduced in 1562 from South Europe,
e.g. Spain and Italy. They are used for flavouring.

TARRAGON.

Artemisia Dracunculus, L., is a native of Siberia. It has lance-
shaped leaves with an aromatic flavour. It is used for sauce and
salads, as well as in the making of Tarragon vinegar.

THYME.

The garden Thyme is an " improved " cultivated form of the wild
Thyme of the mountains of Spain, Thymus vulgaris, L. var. citrio-
dorus, and has a lemon scent. There is also a broad-leaved variety
in cultivation. Thyme is used for stuffing, soups, and sauces.

INDEX

Acetosa, 60

Alexanders, 6

Al harshaf, 45

Allium, species of, 47, 48, 49

Anethon, 64

Anethum graveolens, 64

Angelica sylvestris, 62 ; A. Archangelica,

62

Anise, 62

Anison and Anisum, 62
Anthemis nobilis, 64
Anthriscum, 8

Anthriscus bulbosus and ^4. Oerefolium, 8
^4p*aca, 32
Apium dulce, 46 ; ,4. graveolens, 45, 46,

66 ; .4. hortense, 66 ; A palustre, 45 ;

4. Petroselinum, 66 ; ^4. rapacium, 46 ;

A verum, 66
^4mc^e blanc, 3

Asparagus officinalis, 26 ; A. French, 26
Atriplex agrestis and A domestica, 3
Aubergine, 26

BALM, 62

Barbe de Capucin, 56

Basil, 63

Battata virginiana, 13

Baucea, 21

Bawme, 62

Bean, broad, 26 ; French or kidney, 27

Beet, 3 ; Spinach Beet, 46

Beta maritima and vulgaris, 3, 4 ; cicla,
46

Bipennula, 63

Borage, 63

Brassica alba, 59 ; B. campestris, 23 ;
B. crispa, 37 ; B. erucoides, 59 ; B. gon-
gylodes, 30 ; B. Marina, monosperma,
52 ; B. nigra, 59 ; B. oleracca, v, 29 ;
B. o. bullata, 39 ; B, prolifera, 41 ;
B. raposa, 32 ; B. sabauda or Sauoie,
40; B. selenisia and selinoides, 37;
B. tophosa, 37

Broccoli, 42

Brussels sprouts, 40

Buglossa, 63

Burnet, 63

Bush, and Sweet Green, 63

CABBAGE, 29 ; Dodoens' vars. 34 ;
Gerard's vars. 35. ff. ; Hooker's vars.
36 ; Pliny's vars. 33 ; Savoy, 39 ; C.
open, 39

Caepa, 47

Caerse, 54

Campanula Rapuncvlus, 19

Caput monachi, 59

Caraway, 63

Cardamine hirsuta, 54

Cardamon, 54

Cardino, 44

Cardoon, 44

Carduus esculentus, 44 ; C. sylvestris, 44

Cariota, 7

Carrot, 5

Carum canu, 63 ; G. petroselinum, 66

Cauliflower, 36

Caulorapum rotundum and longum, 31, 33

Cedronetta, 62

Celeriac, 45

Celery, 45, 46

Cepa oblonga, 48

Oepa sterilis, 48

Chamomile, 64

Chard, 46 ; Swiss, 46

Chervil, 8

Chicory, 55

Chive, 49

Chou de Burghley, 41 ; C. d.*Russie, 38 ;

C. fleur, 42; C. Moellier Blanc, 31;

C. Navet, 29 ; C.^palmier, 37
Choulx oabus, 29

Cichorium Endivia and C. Intybus, 55
Clary, 64

Cochlearia Armoracia, 9
Cole or Keele, 32 ; C. florie, 36 ; C., open

cabbage, 38 ; C. curled sauie, 39
Convolvulus Soldanella, 52
Coolewort, Perseley, 36
Coriander, 64
Coriandrum sativum, 64
Corn-salad, 55

Crambe capitata, 29 ; C. maritima, 29, 51
Cress, Bitter, 54; C. garden, 54; C.

Water, 55
Cressens, 54

Cresson de rousseau, 55
Crithmum maritimum, 60
Cucumber, 57

Cucumis Hardwickii, 57 ; C. sativus, 57
Cucurbita maxima, 53 ; C. ovifera, 53 ;

C. Pepo, 53 ; C. verrucosa, 53
Cynara Scclymus, 44; C. Cardunculus,

DANDELION, 58

Daucos, 7

Daucus Carota, 5, 6

70

ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF OUR GARDEN VEGETABLES.

Dill, 64
Dolichos, 27

EGG-PLANT, 26
Elaphoboacum; 5, 6, 7, 23
Endive, 65

Fdba vulgaris, 26
Feldmora, 7
Fennel, 64
Foeniculum officinale, 64

Galaktouchos, 59
Gattitricum, 64
Garlic, 48
Garlic, Crow, 48
Garlic, wild, 48
Garlleg, 48
Gcmgule, 19, 23
Gourd, 53

Halmyridia, 51
Heleio-selinon, 66
Helianthus doronicoidet, 2
Helianihus tuberosus, 1, 2
Horehound, 65
Horminum, 64
Horseradish, 9
Hyssop, 65
Hyssopus officinalis, 65

ICE-PLANT, 65
Intubum, 56'

KALE, 35
Kersens, 54
Kinara, 44
Kohl-rabi, 30
Kormuon, 47
Krithmon, 60
Kuamon, 27

Lactuca Scariola, 59
Lactucarin, 59

Larandula vera L. var. spica, 65
Lavender, 65
Leek, 49
Lentil, 28

Leontodon Taraxicum, 59
Lepidium sativum, 54
Lettuce, 59
Lettuce, Lamb's, 55
Libanotis, 67
Limonia, 44
Luvuttus, 46

Lycopersicum esculentum, 60 ; L. ceroai-
forme, 61

Macedonicum, 66
Marjoram, Pot and Sweet, 65
Marrow, vegetable, 52
Marrubium vulgare, 65

Marsh Samphire, 60

Matricaria Ghamomilla, 64

Melissa officinalis, 62

Mentha Pulegium, 66 ; Jf . sylvestris, 66 ;

Jf. viridis, 66

Mesembryanthemum crystattinum, 65
Mint, 66
Mustard, 59

Napo-brassica, 29

Napus sativus and JV. sylvestris, 23, 24

Nasturtium officinale, 54, 55

Navew, 19, 23

Ocimum Basilicum and 0. minimum, 63

Olusatnum, 6

Onion, kinds of, 47 ; 0. Rock or Stone,

47; Welsh or Walische, 47
Origanum Majorana, and 0. Onites, 65 ;

0. vulgare, 66
Orioselinum, 60
Ornithogalum pyrenaicum, and 0. umbel-

latum, 26
OxoZis, 60
Ox tongue, 63

Paludapium, 45

Papus, 13

Parsley, 66 ; Parsley, Hamburg, 67 ;

Parsley, Marsh, 45
Pastinaca domestica, &o. and P. sylvestris

or erratica, 5, 6, 7
Pea Gardens and Pea, Mummy, 50
Pease, Rowncivall ; Scottish, and tufted,

50

Penny Royal, 67
Petit pourreau, 49
Petrocilium, 66
Petroselinon, 66
Petroselinum sativum, 66
Petrosilium, 66
Phaseolus Indicus, 28 ; P. multiftorus,

28 ; P. vulgaris, and P. peregrinus, 27,

28

Phasioli, 27
Phyteuma spicata, 19
Pimpinella, 63
Pisum excorticatum, 50 ; P. Mains, 50 ;

P. sativum, 50 ; P. umbellatum, 50
Poiree a carde, 46
Portulaca oleracea, 60
Potato, 13

Poterium Sanguisorba, 63
Protein, 59
Pumpkin, 53
Purslane, 60

Eadicola or Radicula, 15, 16

Radish, 15

Rampion, 19

Ramsons, 48

Rape, 23 ; R. Cole, 31, 33

Raphanus agrios or sylvestris, 15 ; .K.

orbiculatus and pyriformis, 16 ; .B.

Raphanistrum, 17, 18

INDEX.

71

Rheum fthaponticnm, 51

Rhubarb, 51

Rocambole, 48

Rosemary, 67

Rosmarinus officinalis, 67

Rue, 67

Rumex Acetosa, 60 ; R. scutatus, 60

Ruta-Baga, 25

Ruta graveolens, 67

SAGE, 64

Salicornia hortacea, 60

Salsify, 20

Salvia ojfieinalis and S. SUarea, 64

Samphire, and S. Marsh, 60

Satureja hortensis, and S. montana, 67

Savoy, Summer and Winter, 67

Scandix, 8

Scarlet-runner, 28

Scolumos, 44

Scolymus hispanicus, 9

Scorzonera hispanica, 20

Sea-kale, 51

Selinon, 45, 66

Seneuye, 59

Serpentaria, 20

Seruilla, 22

Serulum, 22

Shallot, 48

Sicer, 5

Sikuos, 57

Sinapis, 59

Sisaron, 5, 7, 21

Sisarum, 21, 23, 24

Stser, 21, 22

Siserum, 5

Sisymbrium aquaticum, 55

$mw Sisarum, 21, 23

Skirret, 21

Skirwhit, 21

SkirwhiteJ 7 ' '

Skyrwort, 7

Smilax hortensis, 27

Sclanum Maglia, 14 ; £. Mdongena, 26 ;
/S. tuberosum, 14

Sorrel, 60

Spinach, prickly, round, and New Zea-
land, 52

Spinacia oleracea, 52

Stachys Sieboldii, 1

Staphylinos, 5, 6, 7

Star of Bethlehem, 26

Swede, 23

Taraxacum ojficinale, 58

Tarragon, 67

Tetragonia expansa, 52

Thridakine, 59

Thridax, 59

Thyme, 67

Thymus vulgaris var. citriodora, 67

Tomato, 60

Toncarsyn, 54

Tragopogon porrifolius, pratensis, and

purpureus, 20
Turnip, 23

Valeriandla olitoria, 55
Vegetable Marrow, 52
Ffcta ^afta, 26
Ficia narbonensis, 27
Viperaria, 20
Viperina, 20

WATER-KABS, 55
Witloof, 57
Wyrt-truma, 16

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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY