KITCHEN VEGETABLES.
347
German cauliflower, about the end of the same century,was brought from the Levant to Italy ; and in the end of theseventeenth century, was transplanted from thence to Ger-many . For a long lime the seeds were procured annuallyfrom Cyprus, Candia, and Constantinople , by the Venetiansand Genoese, who sent them to every part of Europe ; be-cause, at that time, the art of raising seed was not under-stood.' Prosper Alpinus , in 1588, found abundance of thisvegetable in Egypt , and from his relation there is room toconjecture that it was then very little known in Europe . 1 *Conrad Gesner seems not to have been acquainted with it;at any rate, it is not mentioned by him in a list of the cab-bage genus of plants. 3 4 In the time of Bauhin , it must havebelonged to those vegetables which were scarce, because hehas been so very particular in naming the garden in whichhe saw it.' Von Hohberg, who wrote about 1682, says,that a cauliflower a few years before had been brought toGermany for the first time. 5
It would be tediously unprofitable to trace and defineevery species of the cabbage kind, the leaves and flowers ofwhich were used by the ancients as food; but it would be atask still more arduous to determine those which have escu-lent roots. There appears but little room for doubt, that allthe species of the cabbage originally drew existence fromone parent stem; although, it should seem, botanists harenot given themselves the trouble to examine the severalclasses of kitcheu vegetables, which would serve the pur-poses of useful science much more than to form new generafrom those of Polynesia . But the Linnsean system describesthe following species: First, brassica oleracea, to which be-long all kinds of leaves and flowers which are esculent.Probability favours the idea, that every species of this generahas originally come from one common parent stock, whichit is impossible, at this time, to discover in its simple andprimaeval state. A similarity is noticed in all the kinds ofthis plant in some certain particulars: but, not being bota-nists, we do not feel equal to define it completely, or to
1 We find this stated in Vincenzo Tanaro Ecimomica del Cittadino in Villa, whichbook was written in 1642, and often printed; the eleventh and last edition, pub-lished at Venice, in 1745. See also Halltri Bibliotk. Botan. i. p. 468 ; and ii. p. 682.Lastri Biblioth . Georgica , p. 122. Nonnii Durteticon. p. 49. The first edition,printed in 1627, says, the seeds of cauliflower were brought from Italy to Antwerp ,where no seed was raised, or such only as produced degenerate plants.
* Hist. Nat. yKgypti, i. p. 15?.
3 In Horti Gtrmanue, at the end of Cordi Opera, p. 250. B.
4 Histor. PUnta. ii. p. 829.