CABBAGE, a table vegetable and fodder plant whose various forms are supposed to have been developed by long cultivation from the wild or sea cabbage (Brassica oleracea), a plant found near the sea coast of various parts of England and continental Europe. The cultivated varieties, however, have departed widely from the original type, and they present marked and striking dissimilarities among themselves. The wild cabbage is a compara tively insignificant plant, growing 1 to eft. high, in appearance similar to charlock (Sinapis alba) but having smooth leaves. The wild plant has fleshy, shining, waved and lobed leaves (the upper most being undivided but toothed), large yellow flowers, elongated seed-pod, and seeds with conduplicate cotyledons. ing the fact that the cultivated forms differ in habit so widely, the flower, seed-pods and seeds present no appreciable difference.
John Lindley proposed the following classification for the vari ous forms : (I) All the leaf-buds active and open, as in wild cab bage and kail or greens; (2) all the leaf-buds active, but forming heads, as in Brussels sprouts; (3) terminal leaf-bud alone active, forming a head, as in common cabbage, savoys, etc. ; (4) ter minal leaf-bud alone active and open, with most of the flowers abortive and succulent, as in cauliflower and broccoli; (5) all the leaf-buds active and open, with most of the flowers abortive and succulent, as in sprouting broccoli. The last variety bears the same relation to common broccoli as Brussels sprouts do to the common cabbage. Of all these forms there are numerous gardeners' varieties.
Under Lindley's first class, common or Scotch kail or bore cole (Brassica oleracea, form acephala), includes several vari eties which are amongst the har diest of our esculents, and yield winter greens. They require well enriched soil, and sufficient space for full exposure to air; and they should also be sown early, so as to be well established and hardened before winter. The plants send up a stout central stem, growing upright to a height of about aft., with close-set, large, thick, plain leaves of a light red or purplish hue. The lower leaves are stripped off as the plants grow up, and used for the prepara tion of broth or "Scotch kail," a dish at one time in great repute in north-eastern Scotland. A remarkable variety of open-leaved cabbage is cultivated in the Channel Islands under the name of the Jersey or branching cabbage.
It commonly grows to a height of 8f t., but it has been known to attain double that height. It throws out branches from the central stem, which is sufficiently firm and woody to be fashioned into walking-sticks ; and the stems are used by the islanders as rafters for bearing the thatch on their cottage-roofs. Several varieties are cultivated as orna mental plants on account of their beautifully coloured, frizzed and laciniated leaves.
Brussels sprouts (Brassica oleracea, form gemmifera) are miniature cabbage-heads, about an inch in diameter, which form in the axils of the leaves.
The third class is chiefly repre sented by the common or drum head cabbages (Brassica oleracea, form capitata), the varieties of which are distinguished by size, form and colour. In Germany it is converted into Sauerkraut by placing in a tub alternate layers of salt and cabbage. An acid fermentation sets in, which after a few days is complete, when the vessel is tightly covered over and the product kept for use with animal food.
The savoy (B. oleracea, form subanda) is a hardy green variety, characterized by its wrinkled leaves.
Cabbages contain a very small percentage of nitrogenous com pounds as compared with most other articles of food. Their food value apart from their salt and vitamin content is therefore small.
The red cabbage (Brassica oleracea, form capitata rubra), of which the Dutch red is the most commonly grown, is much used for pickling. The dwarf red and Utrecht red are smaller.
Cauliflower, the chief representative of class 4, consists of the inflorescence of the plant modified to form a compact succulent white mass or head. The cauliflower (Brassica oleracea, form botrytis cauliflora) is said to have been introduced from Cyprus. It is one of the most delicately flavoured of vegetables, the dense cluster formed by its incipient succulent flower-buds being the edible portion.
Broccoli is merely a variety of cauli flower, differing in the form and colour of its inflorescence and its hardiness. The broccoli (Brassica oleracea, form botrytis) succeeds best in loamy soil, somewhat firm in texture.
Broccoli sprouts, the representative of the fifth class, consist of flowering sprouts springing from the axils of the leaves. The purple-leaved variety is very hardy and much-esteemed.
Kohlrabi (Brassica oleracea, form gongylodes or caulorapa) is a peculiar variety in which the stem, just above the ground, swells into a fleshy turnip-like mass. It is much cultivated in certain dis tricts as a food for stock, for which purpose the drumhead cab bage and the thousand-headed kail are also largely used. Kohl rabi is exceedingly hardy, withstanding both severe frosts and drought. It is not much grown in English gardens.
Several species of palm, from the fact of yielding large sapid central buds which are cooked as vegetables, are known as cab bage-palms. The principal of these is Oreodoxa oleracea, but other species such as the coco palm and the royal palm (Oreo doxa regia) yield similar edible leaf-buds.
For further details see J. Percival, Agricultural Botany (London, 1926) ; W. W. Robbins, Botany of Crop Plants (Philadelphia, 1926).