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CHAP. 25.—RAPE. TURNIPS.

The other plants that are of a cartilaginous nature are concealed, all of them, in the earth. In the number of these is the rape, a subject upon which it would almost appear that we have treated1 at sufficient length already, were it not that we think it as well to observe, that; medical men call those which are round "male,"2 while those which are larger and more elongated, are known to them as "female" rape: these last are superior in sweetness, and better for keeping, but by successive sowings they are changed into male rape.3

The same authors, too, have distinguished five different va- rieties of the turnip:4 the Corinthian, the Cleonæan, the Liothasian, the Bœotian, and the one which they have characterized as peculiarly the "green" turnip. The Corinthian turnip5 grows to a very large size, and the root is all but out of the ground; indeed, this is the only kind that, in growing, shoots upwards, and not as the others do, downwards into the ground. The Liothasian is known by some persons as the Thracian turnip;6 it is the one that stands extreme cold the best of all. Next to it, the Bœotian kind is the sweetest; it is remarkable, also, for the roundness of its shape and its shortness; while the Cleonæan turnip,7 on the other hand, is of an elongated form. Those, in general, which have a thin, smooth leaf, are the sweetest; while those, again, the leaf of which is rough, angular, and prickly, have a pungent taste. There is a kind of wild turnip,8 also, the leaves of which resemble those of rocket.9 At Rome, the highest rank is given to the turnips of Amiternum,10 and those of Nursia; after them, those grown in the neighbourhood of the City11 are held in the next degree of esteem. The other particulars connected with the sowing of the turnip have been already mentioned12 by us when speaking of the rape.

1 In B. xviii. c. 34.

2 Though borrowed from Theophrastus and the Greek school, this distinction is absurd and unfounded.

3 It is not the fact that the seed of the round kind, after repeated sowings, will produce long roots. Pliny, however, has probably miscopied Theophrastus, who says, Hist. Plant. B. vii. c. 4, that this transformation takes place when the seed is sown very thick. This assertion, however, is no more founded on truth than that of Pliny.

4 Also from Theophrastus, B. vii. c. 4; though that author is speaking of radishes, ραφανίδες, and not turnips.

5 Properly radish.

6 Properly radish.

7 Radish.

8 Properly radish.

9 See B. xx. c. 49. Fée queries whether this radish may not be the Raphanus raphanistrum of botanists. See B. xviii. c. 34.

10 See B. xviii. c. 35.

11 "Nostratibus." Poinsinet would render this, "Those of my native country," i. e. the parts beyond the Padus. As Pliny resided at Rome during the latter part of his life, there can be little doubt but that he alludes to the vicinity of Rome.

12 See B. xviii. c. 34.

The Natural History. Pliny the Elder. John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S. H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A. London. Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. 1855.

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