The other varieties of the cabbage[1134] are numerous—there is the Cumanian cabbage, with leaves that lie close to the ground, and a wide, open head; the Aricinian[1135] cabbage, too, of no greater height, but with more numerous leaves and thinner—this last is looked upon as the most useful of them all, for beneath nearly all of the leaves there are small shoots thrown out, peculiar to this variety. The cabbage, again, of Pompeii[1136] is considerably taller, the stalk, which is thin at the root, increasing in thickness as it rises among the leaves, which are fewer in number and narrower; the great merit of this cabbage is its remarkable tenderness, although it is not able to stand the cold. The cabbage of Bruttium,[1137] on the other hand, thrives all the better for cold; the leaves of it are remarkably large, the stalk thin, and the flavour pungent. The leaves, again, of the Sabine[1138] cabbage are crisped to such a degree as to excite our surprise, and their thickness is such as to quite exhaust the stem; in sweetness, however, it is said to surpass all the others. There have lately come into fashion the cabbages known as the “Lacuturres;”[1139] they are grown in the valley of Aricia, where there was formerly a lake, now no longer in existence, and a tower which is still standing. The head of this cabbage is very large, and the leaves are almost without number, some of them being round and smooth, and others long and sinewy; indeed, there is no cabbage that runs to a larger head than this, with the sole exception of the Tritian variety, which has a head sometimes as much as a foot in thickness, and throws out its cymæ the latest of all. In all kinds of cabbages, hoar-frost contributes very materially to their sweetness; but it is apt to be productive of considerable injury, if care is not taken to protect the pith by cutting them aslant. Those plants which are intended for seed are never cut. There is another kind, again, that is held in peculiar esteem, and which never exceeds the height of an herbaceous plant; it is known by the name of “halmyridia,”[1140] from the circumstance of its growing on the sea-shore[1141] only. It will keep green and fresh during a long voyage even, if care is taken not to let it touch the ground from the moment that it is cut, but to put it into oil-vessels lately dried, and then to bung them so as to effectually exclude all air. There are some[1142] who are of opinion, that the plant will come to maturity all the sooner if some sea-weed is laid at the root when it is transplanted, or else as much pounded nitre as can be taken up with three fingers; and others, again, sprinkle the leaves with trefoil seed and nitre pounded together.[1143] Nitre, too, preserves the greenness of cabbage when cooked, a result which is equally ensured by the Apician mode of boiling, or in other words, by steeping the plants in oil and salt before they are cooked.