At first the
blossoms of the radish are yellow, but they quickly fade to
white, and their purplish veins become more conspicuous. Rarely
the flowers are all purplish. The entire plant is rough to the
touch; the leaves, similar to those of the garden radish, are
deeply cleft (lyrate-pinnatifid); the seed pods, which soon
follow the flowers up the spike, are nearly cylindric when fresh,
but become constricted between the seeds, as they dry, until each
little pod looks like a section of a bead necklace.
The GARDEN RADISH of the market (R. sativus), occasionally
escaped from cultivation, although credited to China, is entirely
unknown in its native state. "It has long been held in high
esteem," wrote Peter Henderson, "and before the Christian era a
volume was written on this plant alone. The ancient Greeks, in
offering their oblations to Apollo, presented turnips in lead,
beets in silver, and radishes in vessels of beaten gold." Pliny
describes a radish eaten in Rome as being so transparent one
might see through the root.
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