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WHAT IS THE THAMES-SIDE BRASSICA ? 349
or only the remains of a field of Eape- or Cole-seed," for it has been
many years " well established .... by the banks of rivers and
ditches."
But is the specific name campeslris any more con-ect than the one
here discarded ? This question can hardly be answered off-hand in
the affirmative, because it involves a decision whether the name of
campedris applies to the wild state of the Rape or the Swede or the
Turnip. It is evident that ]\ii'. Boswell-Syrae has described the
Swede for Brassica campestris, and has assumed that onr " well-
established " Thames-side plant is the wild state of the Swede, not
the wild state of the common or true Turnip. But its grass-green
(not glaucous) and bristly radical leaves negative the assumption. My
conviction is, on a familiarity with the plant during thirty years, that
the Thames-side Brassica is simply the wild stock of the true Turnip,
scarcely differing from this latter except by the non-enlargement of the
root into an esculent globe. On dry banks exposed to the sun the
radical leaves are more hjspid than usual in the cultivated varieties,
and they frequently acquii'e a dark or purplish tint, which is not at all
glaucous ; but in damper ground they have the grass-green hue of the
Turnip, and are less hispid.
Whatever is done with the Swede, the position of campestris, as the
wild stock of the Turnip, seems to be in accordance with the views of
most botanists. In the ' Manual of British Botany ' Professor Ba-
bington places Rapa as a variety of campestris, and distinguishes it
only by its "root caulescent fleshy," words, indeed, that would better
describe the Swede than the true Turnip, for the esculent enlargement
of the former is continued upwards somewhat into the stem, while
that of the true Turnip is entirely radical. In the ' Summa Vegetabi-
lium ' Fries also places Rapa as the cultivated variety of campestris.
A similar view is adopted by Grenier and Godron in the * Plore de
France,' and by Koch in the ' Synopsis Florae Gerraanicse,' though
their nomenclature differs. The French authors follow Lamarck in
using the expressive name asperifolia for the species, making cam-
pestris (L.) its type form, and Rapa the esculent-rooted variety. The
German author uses the name Rapa for the species, but equally
makes that of campestris (L.) apply to the type form.
There is some confusion, however, through treating typical campes-
tris as an annual, and describing the annual form as and for flic