radish; a genus of the siliquosa order, belonging to the tetradyamia class of plants.

There is only one species, viz. the sativus, or common garden radish; of which there are several varieties. They are annual plants, which being sowed in the spring, attain perfection in two or three months, and shoot up soon after into stalk for flower and seed, which, ripening in autumn, the whole plant, root and top, perishes; so that a fresh supply must be raised annually from seed in the spring, performing the sowings at several different times, from about Christmas until May, in order to continue a regular succession of young tender radishes throughout the season: allowing only a fortnight or three weeks interval between the sowings; for one crop will not continue good longer than that space of time, before they will either run to seed, or become tough, sticky, and too hot to eat.