_This wild plant is likewise the original of the various kinds of_ colewort, borecole, cauliflower, _and_ brocoli. The effects of cultivation on the cabbage are very remarkable. In the wild plants the leaves are extended: but in the common garden cabbage they are set so close together as to lie upon each other, almost like the scales of a bulb, and, increasing in compactness as they increase in size: those in the interior being excluded from the effects of the light, do not assume a green, but are of yellow colour. Other plants of this species form their stalks into a head, as the _cauliflower_ and _brocoli_; and others grow, in a natural way, without forming either their leaves or stalks into heads, as the _coleworts_, or _Dorsetshire kale_, the _borcoles_, _turnip-rooted cabbage_, and others. In some parts of England, cabbages of different kinds are much cultivated as food for cattle, and they succeed well in rich and finely prepared land. The seed is sown in February or March. In April or May the young plants are taken out, and set in rows, at a little distance from each other; and, in the ensuing autumn and winter, the cabbages afford a valuable stock of food. All the kinds of cabbage are useful for domestic purposes; and some of them afford a peculiarly sweet and delicate food. An agreeable pickle is made of them, and the Germans, and people of other northern countries of the Continent, prepare from them a favourite food called _sour-crout_. These plants were known to, and much used by, the ancient Greeks and Romans. Cabbages are biennial plants, or are sown one year, produce seed in the ensuing year, and then die. ---- CLASS XVI.--MONADELPHIA. ---- TRIANDRIA. 190. _TAMARINDS are the pulp and needs produced by the pods of a large tree with winged leaves_ (Tamarindus Indica, Fig. 51), _which grows in the East and West Indies, America, and several parts of Asia._ _This tree is from thirty to forty feet in height; and its leaves consist usually of fourteen pairs of leaflets. The flowers are formed in clusters, from the sides of the branches, and have each three yellowish petals, beautifully marked with red veins._ _The fruit of the tamarind-tree is a roundish but somewhat compressed pod, four or five inches in length, the external part of which is very brittle. Each pod contains three or four hard seeds, enveloped in tough skins, surrounded by a dark-coloured, acid pulp, and connected together by numerous tough and woody fibres._