educated at Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, where he was elected junior fellow in 1530. He learnt Greek from Nicholas Ridley, and, hearing Hugh Latimer preach, threw in his lot with the new faith. In 1538 he published his Libellus de re herbaria, and in 1540 set out to preach in different places. For doing this without a licence he suffered imprisonment, and on his release travelled in Holland, Germany, Italy and Switzerland, always increasing his knowledge of botany and medicine, collecting plants, and writing books on religion which were so popular in England that they were forbidden by proclamation in July 1546. On the accession of Edward VI. he became chaplain and physician to the duke of Somerset and in 1550 prebendary of York. In November 1550 he was made dean of Wells, but in 1553 was deprived, and during Queen Mary's reign lived at various places in Germany, mostly along the Rhine. Returning to England in 1558 he regained his deanery, and did all he could to disparage episcopacy and ceremonial, and to bring the Anglican Church into conformity with the Reformed Churches of Germany and Switzerland. On the complaint of his bishop, Gilbert Berkeley, he was suspended for Nonconformity in 1564. He passed his last days in Crutched Friars, London, and died on the 7th of July 1568. Turner was a sound and keen botanist, and introduced lucerne into England. He was a racy writer, a man of undoubted learning, and a vigorous controversialist.
TURNHOUT, a town of Belgium, in the province of Antwerp, 26 m. N.E. of that city. Pop. (1904), 22,162. It carries on an active industry in cloth and other manufactures. There is a breeding establishment for leeches. The hôtel de ville was formerly a palace of the dukes of Brabant. Two miles west of Turnhout is the curious penal or reformatory colony of Merxplas (pop. in 1904, 2827). The system of this establishment is to allow certain approved prisoners to follow their usual occupations within a defined area. The persons detained have complete liberty of movement, subject to the two conditions that they are under the supervision of guardians and are not allowed to cross the boundaries of the settlement. They also wear a distinct dress, and each prisoner bears a number.
TURNIP, Brassica campestris, var. Rapa, a hardy biennial, found in cornfields in various parts of England. It has been cultivated from a remote period for its fleshy roots. The tender growing tops are also used in spring as a green vegetable. The so-called “root” is formed by the thickening of the primary root of the seedling together with the base of the young stem (hypocotyl) immediately above it. The great mass of the “root” consists of soft “wood” developed internally by the cambium layer and composed mainly of thin-walled, unlignified, wood-parenchyma. The stem remains short during the first year, the leaves forming a rosette-like bunch at the top of the “bulb”; they are grass-green and bear rough hairs. In the second season the bud in the centre of the rosette forms a strong erect branched stem bearing somewhat glaucous smooth leaves. The stem and branches end in corymbose racemes of small, bright yellow flowers, which are succeeded by smooth, elongated, short-beaked pods.
The varieties of turnip are classified according to the shape as (1) long varieties, with a root three or more times as long as broad; (2) tankard or spindle-shaped varieties, with a root about twice as long as broad; (3) round or globe varieties with an almost spherical root; (4) flat varieties with a root broader than long; there are also many intermediate forms. Turnips are also grouped according to the colour of the upper part of the root which comes above ground, and according to the colour of the flesh, which is white or yellow. The yellow-fleshed varieties, many of which are probably hybrids between the turnip and swede, are more robust, of slower growth and superior feeding value to the white-fleshed turnips, and are less injured by frost.
The swede-turnip, Brassica campestris, var. Napo-brassica, differs from the turnip proper in having the first foliage-leaves glaucous, not grass-green, in colour, and the later leaves smooth and glaucous; the root bears a distinct neck with well-marked leaf-scars, the flesh is yellow or reddish-oranges, firmer and more nutritious, and the roots keep much better during winter. The flowers are larger and buff-yellow or orange in colour and the seeds are usually larger and darker than in the turnip.
Turnips should be grown in a rich friable sandy loam, such as will produce medium-sized roots without much aid from the manure heap, and are better flavoured if grown in fresh soil. In light dry soils well decomposed hotbed or farmyard manure is the best that can be used, but in soils containing an excess of organic matter, bone dust, superphosphate of lime, wood-ashes or guano, mixed with light soil, and laid in the drills before sowing the seed, are beneficial by stimulating the young plants to get quickly into rough leaf, and thus to grow out of reach of the so-called turnip fly or turnip flea (Phyllotreta). To get rid of this pest, it has been found beneficial to dust the plants with quicklime, and also to draw over the young plants nets smeared with some sticky substance like treacle, by which large numbers will be caught and destroyed. It has also been recommended as a palliative to sow thick in order to allow for a percentage of loss from this and other causes, but this is inadvisable, as overcrowding is apt to render the plants weak. As a preventive, gas-lime may be scattered over the surface after the seed has been sown. Lime is also effective against the disease known as “finger and toe” (q.v.).
The first sowing should be made on a warm border, with the protection of a frame or matted hoops, in January or February; the second on a well-sheltered border in March, after which a sowing once a month will generally suffice. In May and June the plot should be in a cool moderately shaded position, lest the plants should suffer from drought. The principal autumn and winter sowings, which are the most important, should be made about the end of June in northern districts, and in the beginning of July in warmer districts; a small sowing should be made at the end of August to come in before the spring-sown crops are ready. If the weather is showery at the time of sowing, the seed speedily germinates, and the young plants should be kept growing quickly by watering with rain or pond water and by surface stirrings. The drills for the earliest sorts need not be more than 15 in. apart, and the plants may be left moderately thick in the row; the late crops should have at least 2 ft. between the rows, and be thinned to 12 in. in the row, a free circulation of air about them being very important in winter. As a provision against prolonged periods of severe weather it has been recommended to lay the finest roots in rows, covering them well with soil, and leaving intact the whole of the foliage. The very latest sown crops of half-grown roots will prolong the supply until the earliest spring-sown crops are fit for use.
TURNPIKE, a pike or pointed bar or stake which turns or revolves, hence the name given to a form of barrier consisting of three or more horizontal bars, with one end sharpened, revolving on a pivot. Such barriers were used across roads, and, when tolls were exacted from passengers along highways to raise the money for the upkeep of the roads, the name, though not the form, was given both to the toll-gates set up at different places where the tolls were collected, and to the highways repaired under the system (see Highway).
A “turnstile,” consisting of a vertical post with projecting, revolving arms, is another form of barrier, placed by the side of a gate across a road, or across a path to prevent the passage of all except foot passengers, or at the entrance to any building, park or other place as a means of controlling the admission of people, of collecting admission money and the like.
TURNSTONE, the name long given [1] to a shore-bird, from its habit of turning over with its bill such stones as it can to seek its food in the small crustaceans or other animals lurking beneath them. It is the Tringa interpres[2] of Linnaeus and Strepsilas interpres of most later writers, and is remarkable as being perhaps the most cosmopolitan of birds; for, through properly belonging to the northern hemisphere, there is scarcely a sea-coast in the world on which may not occur: it has been obtained from Spitzbergen to the Strait of Magellan and from Point Barrow to the Cape of Good Hope and New Zealand—examples from the southern hemisphere being, however, almost invariably in a state of plumage that shows, if not immaturity, yet an ineptitude for reproduction. It also, though much less commonly, resorts
- ↑ The name seems to appear first in F. Willughby’s Ornithologia (p. 231) in 1676; but he gave as an alias that of Sea-Dottrel, under which name a drawing, figured by him (pl. 58), was sent by him by Sir Thomas Browne.
- ↑ Linnaeus (Oel. och Gothländska Resa, p. 217), who first met with this bird on the island of Gottland (July 1, 1741), was under the mistaken belief that it was there called Tolk ( = interpres). But that name properly belongs to the Redshank (q.v.), from the cry of warning to other animals that it utters on the approach of danger.
