kitchen vegetables.

349

under the name of the winter and summer rope. Whenthinly plairted in a fertile soil, it produces esculent roots,having rather a harsh taste; its proper name in Germany issteckriibe. Such the old writers call it, and such is its pre-sent name in Bohemia , where it is cultivated; as suchit is there termed kohlrabi under the earth. It appears,that in Germany , there are two species of this plant, calledsteckruben, they are never very thick: the leaves arise im-mediately from the roots; blit, it is said, in th e gongylodesand napo-brassica, they proceed from the stem.

Our respectable authority (Beckmann) did not expect tofind this species of rape cultivated among the ancients, theyhaving no occasion for this species of oil, possessing plantsand other substances, which yielded so much better, forsimilar purposes for which this is used, in the olive tree andthe sesamum, with the seeds and nuts of the turpentine tree:the ancients obtaining their oils from these by expression,whilst the moderns procure theirs by distillation from thesame materials. Vide his Geopon. lib. ix. 18, p. Gil, andArislotelis Auscult. mirabil. cap. 99, p. 183, w here Beck-mann has shown the difference of the two proceses. But toreturn. He conceived this species of turnip might havebeen produced in northern countries, since rape began to becultivated for oil. Afterwards he thought this plant mightprobably have become so much domesticated among us, asto be found not unfreipiently in a wild state. It might havebeen then remarked, by some who had made trial of it, thatthe pulpy roots of plants growing in a wild state, when be-come transplanted in a more congenial soil, w'ere good forfood and well tasted. When first cultivated, their flavourwas doubtless remarked to be harsh; but by better andlonger cultivation, they became much more tolerable to thetaste, insomuch, that by degrees they were introduced to thetables of the great, under the names of Markisli, Telloic,Borsfeld, Bobenhmser, and Wilhehnsburg rapes. In eachcountry they were named after those places where they ac-quired the best savour; which w’as the case whenever thesoil consisted of a due admixture of loam and sand: he re-marks, the more sand there was, the more preferable wasthe plant. From such districts large quantities of them weresent to great distances; but, perhaps, never in more abun-dance than from Teltow , in the Middle Mark; which smalltown, he says, sold to the amount of more than 2000 dollars,chiefly to Berlin and Hamburgh; from the latter place theseagreeable roots were frequently sent to both Indies. Theywere also raised in considerable quantities iti other districts,