Gosh quattro I didn't realize that Cubby was so old!. According to
http://www.backyardgardener.com/veg/broccoli.html
.
It is believed that braccoli was known to the Romans at the time of Pliny, but references to this vegetable group it with cauliflower. The first notice of broccoli as such was make in 1724 by an English writer who called it "sprout colliclower or Italian asparagus." In 1729 another English gardener reported that there were several kinds that he had been growing in London for two years; "that with small, whitish-yellow flowers like the cauliflower; others like the common sprouts and flowers of a colewart; and thrid with purple flowers; all of which come mixed together."