CAULIFLOWER, a member (Brassica oleracea var. botrytis) of the cabbage tribe, derived from the same original species as cab bage (q.v.), from which it differs in having a more or less compact head of metamorphosed flowers and adjacent parts instead of a bud like head of densely packed leaves. Broccoli is a late hardy form of cauliflower not widely Frown in America. Cauliflower is more del icately flavored than cabbage, like which it may be cultivated and prepared for the table. In its cultivation, however, it seems to be more difficult to bring to perfection unless conditions, especially moisture and . temperature, are just right. The essentials of its cultivation are highly fertile soil well drained, but well sup plied with moisture, a moist climate or season, and shelter from the direct rays of the sun, as on a northern slope, or reduction of the inten sity of the sun's heat by planting either very early so as to mature in spring, or late so as to mature after mid-autumn. The heads pro
duced in mid-summer are generally inferior in both size and quality. When the heads begin to develop, the leaves are tied above them so as to keep out foreign materiali, but mainly to make the heads whiter and more attractive to the purchaser. In preparing for the table the finer heads are usually served with a cream sauce ; the poorer ones being pickled. In com parison with cabbage seed, the seed of cauli flower is very expensive because of the diffi culty of maintaining its high quality. For merly the seed was imported from Denmark and Germany, but Washington and British Colum bia have been gaining in the market with their cauliflower, cabbage and other related seeds.
Cauliflower suffers from the same enemies that attack cabbage. Consult Bailey, L. H., Standard Cyclopedia of American Horticul ture' (New York 1914) ; Allen, 'Cabbages, Cauliflower, etc.'