The Cauliflower

looking somewhat like a mustard or half-grown cabbage. This is the wild cabbage, Brassica oleracea, from which our cultivated cabbages originated. It is entirely destitute of a head, but has rather

e, in 1821, more than thirty. For a long time this plant was used for food in a slightly improved state before heads of any kind were developed. Sturtevant, quotes Oliver de Serres, as saying that, "White cabbages came from the north, and the art of making them head was unknown in the time of Charlemagne." He adds that the first unmistakable reference to our headed cabbage that he finds is by Rullius, who in 1536 mentions globular heads, a foot and a half in diameter. It was probably about this time that

Linn?us brought the cauliflower and the broccoli into one botanical variety." When broccolis came to England from Italy, they were at first known under the names "sprout-cauliflower," or "Italian asparagus." This, ho

e 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 shoots; after this, by continued selection and successive improvements, varieties were obtained w

e it seem doubtful that our broccolis have originated from our cauliflowers. Whatever the original form of the cauliflower may have been, it seems more probable that the broccolis now gr

te of development and widely distributed before the latter are mentioned in history. They we

cyma by Pliny for a form of the cabbage tribe, which he thinks may have been the broccoli. Heuze states that three varieties of caulifl

Aleppo, in Turkey. It seems to have been introduced into England from the Island of

he only plants of the cabbage tribe which he saw in that country were the cauli

n 1619 as being sold in the London market. In 1694 Pompes, a French author, is quoted as saying that, "It comes

ing this vegetable, though mentioning but one variety, while several varieties of broccoli are described. He says, however, that "cauliflowers have of late years been so far improved in England as to far exceed in goodness and magnitude what are produced in most parts of Europe." Prior

rent crops produced by sowing the seed at different periods. In 1796, Marshall, in his English work on gardening, says that "cauliflower is sometimes distinguished into an early and late sort; though in fact there

ies of broccoli and three of cauliflower. The latter were known as Early, Later or Large, and Red, the last being the most

to whether the early and late cauliflowers were r

on kitchen gardeners. The early variety was grown for a number of years in the grounds called the Meat-house Gardens, at Millbank, near Chelsea, and was of a superior quality, and generally the first at market. The late variety is supposed to have originated from a stock for many years cultivated on a piece of ground called the Jamaica level, near Deptford, and which produced uncommonly fine heads, but later than those at Millbank.

rliness, were recognized, le dur, le demi-dur and le tendre

ower are white, but some are green or reddish. They are cooked in water, and dressed with oil or white sauce. We cult

gh history does not show it, we must infer that even then there were distinct differences in the cauliflowers cultivated in different parts of Europ

heren and Large Asiatic-varieties still in cultivation. Burr described ten sorts in 1863, and Vilmorin sixteen sorts in 1883. There are recorded in the present work the names of one hundred and forty varieties besides synonyms. Some of