The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1884-02-07
HOPticUi .ural Notes.


There are many interesting facts in
relation to our garden plants, which,
though they may have little practical
bearing, are of much scientific inter
est. The gardener who knows the
natural history of his plants, as well
as how to grow them, is more intel
Hgent, and usually more cultured
man, than the one who knows only
the practical side. The gardener who
has taste for good reading has inter
esting subjects for thought and con-
YerSation, that relieve, in a measure,
the irksomeneSS of labor. We have
not far to look to find interesting sub
jects. The cabbage family is the one
that first suggests itself to my mind.
How many gardeners know that their
cabbage, caulifiower, broccoli, Brus-
sells sprouts, kale and rutabaga have
all descended from the same wild
plant? All have doubtless noticed
how closely the young plants OF these
vegetables resemble one another. 1t
is not until the plants have attained
considerable size that differences in
their manner of growth begin to ap-
pear. The color of the flowers, the
manner of producing seeds, and the
seeds themselves, in all these vege-
tables are almost precisely alike.
The wild cabbage now grows upon
the western shores of Europe. It is a
tall, coarse looking plant, that lives
through several seasons. 1t forms
neither the head Of the cabbage nor
cauliflower; it has not the thickened
stem of the kohl rabi, nor the fieshy
root of the rutabaga. One would
notice in it little resemblance to any
of the plants.
We may assume that at some very
remote period in the history of our
race, the wild cabbage was one of the
plants that was sought after by the
savages, on account of its palatable
and nutritious leaves. Naturally
enough, the seeds of plants that were
found good for food, were scattered
about their huts, and protected from
the inroads of wild beasts. This was
the rude beginning of the art of horti-
culture, which, by the way, is perhaps
the Oldest art, unless it be that of the
chase. Just as the rough, uncouth
newsboy, taken from the streets of
New York, and placed under the re-
filming influences Of Christian home,
develops traits and abilities that
would never have appeared amid the
want and squalor of his first home, so
the wild cabbage, relieved of the
croWdlGg and shading of its native
haunts, developed qualities that were
unknown in its wild state.
The vigorous plant began to en-
ploy the energy that was for
merly used in the struggle for exist
ence, in storing up nutriment in one
or another of its parts. In some
plants the mid-ribs of the leaves be-
came thick and fieshy, which caused
| the leaves to curve inward about one
another, forming the cabbage head.
In others the stem became thickened,
as in the marrow kale, which, during
unnumbered centuries of selection, be-
came shortened into round expan-
sion, as in the kohl-rabi. In other
plants the flower heads became fleShy
instead of opening their pedals and
forming seed. The plants that pro-
duced the largest number of these
| fieshy flowers at the same time were
naturally most priZ nd the seeds
of such plants were most carefully
saved. Thus, in process of time, a
plant was obtained that produces all
| of its thickened flowers at the same
time-our caulifiower.
In other plants the nutriment was
deposited in the roots, and these, pass
ing through the same long process of
selection, developed our ruta-baga
Some botanists, however, believe that
the ruta-baga is the result of a hybrid
between the turnip and the rape,
which is also a member of the cab
bage family. This opinion is certain
ly reasonable, for the foliage of the
ruta-baga resembles both that of the
turnip and of the cabbage.