The Cauliflower (Esprios Classics)

On the sea-coasts of Great Britain and other countries of western Europe from Norway around to the northern shores of the Mediterranean (where it is chiefly at home) grows a small biennial plant 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 succulent stems and leaves and has been used more or less for food from the earliest historic times. The cultivated plants which most resemble this wild species are our different sorts of kale. In fact this wild plant is the original not only of our headed cabbage in its different varieties but also of all forms of kale the kohl-rabi brussels-sprouts broccolis and cauliflowers.