Cauliflower groups. In the 1st century AD, Pliny included what he called "cyma" among his descriptions of cultivated plants in "Natural History": ""Ex omnibus brassicae generibus suavissima est cyma,"" ("Of all the varieties of cabbage the most pleasant-tasted is "cyma""). Pliny's descriptions likely refer to the flowering heads of an earlier cultivated variety of "Brassica oleracea", but comes close to describing modern cauliflower. It is found in the writings of the Arab botanists Ibn al-'Awwam and Ibn al-Baitar, in the 12th and 13th centuries when its origins were said to be Cyprus. François Pierre La Varenne employed "chouxfleurs" in "Le cuisinier
Cauliflower françois". They were introduced to France from Genoa in the 16th century, and are featured in Olivier de Serres' "Théâtre de l'agriculture" (1600), as "cauli-fiori" "as the Italians call it, which are still rather rare in France; they hold an honorable place in the garden because of their delicacy", but they did not commonly appear on grand tables until the time of Louis XIV. It was introduced to India in 1822 from England by the British. The word "cauliflower" derives from the Italian "caoli fiori", meaning "cabbage flower". The ultimate origin of the name is from the Latin words "caulis"