Our foreign kitchen vegetables have, for the most part, been procured from the southern countries, but chiefly from Italy; and the number of them has rapidly increased, in the course of the last two centuries. Many of them require laborious attention to make them thrive in our climate. On the other hand, some grow so readily, and increase so much without culture, even in the open fields, that they have become like indigenous weeds, as is the case with hops, which at present abound in our hedges. Some plants, however, both indigenous and foreign, which were formerly raised by art and used at the table, are no longer cultivated, because we have become acquainted with others more beneficial. Among many which were formerly cultivated, but at present are no longer esteemed, are the following. Winter-cresses, _erysimum barbarea_; common alexander, _smyrnium olosatrum_, which in the seventeenth century was used instead of celery; bulbous chærophyllum, the roots of which are still brought to market at Vienna, where they are boiled and eaten as salad. Rampion, _phyteuma spicata_, was formerly used in like manner. The earth nut, the tuberous roots of the _lathyrus tuberosus_, which grows wild in many parts of Germany, is still cultivated in Holland and in some districts on the Rhine. Rocket, _brassica eruca_, in Italian, _ruchette_, the young leaves of which were eaten by our forefathers as salad, and is still retained in Italy. And there are several others either but imperfectly known or little regarded. Among the kitchen vegetables of which no certain traces are to be found in the works of the ancients, is spinage, _spinacea oleracea_. Its native country is unknown; but the name is new, and certainly derived from the nature of its prickly seeds. As far as I know, it first occurs in the year 1351, among the food used by the monks on fast-days; and at that time it was written _spinagium_ or _spinachium_. The ancients were acquainted with curled cabbages, and even with some of those kinds which we call _broccoli_. Under this term is understood all those species, the numerous young flower heads of which, particularly in spring and autumn, can be used like cauliflowers. The broccoli used at present was however first brought from Italy to France, together with the name, about the end of the sixteenth century.