1891 -Tomato (cont.) to Turnip - Sturtevant's HISTORY OF GARDEN VEGETABLES

THE HISTORY OF GARDEN VEGETABLES. BY E. L. STURTEVANT. (Continued from page 706, Vol. XXV., 1891.) 

https://archive.org/details/jstor-2452344 

Lycopersicum humboldtii Dun. 

 This is very like the preceding, but the racemes of the flowers smaller, the calycine segments being never the length of the corolla, and the berries one-half smaller, red, and, when cultivated, not less angular than those of L. esculentum. 

It was noticed by Humboldt  as under cultivation at La Victoria, Neuva Valencia, and everywhere in the valleys of Aragua, in South America, and is described by Kunth'in 1823, and by Willdenow, about 1806, from plants in the Berlin garden from seeds received from Humboldt. The fruit, although small, has a fine flavor.

 I suspect the Turban, Turk's Cap, or Turk's Turban of our seedsmen, a novelty of 1881, to be referable here, although this cultivated variety is probably a monstrous form.

 Lycopersicum pyriforme Dun. 

 This, which is to be classed as one of the fancy varieties under cultivation, occurs with both yellow, red, and pale yellow or whitish fruit. It was described by Dunalin 1813, and in Persoon's synopsis in 1805.  It is mentioned in England in 1819, and both the colors in the United States by Salisbury in 1848.

 It is liked by some for garnishing and pickling. 

The common names are pear-shaped and fig.

 Lycopersicum pimpinellifolium Dun. 

The currant tomato bears its red fruit, somewhat longer than a common currant, or as large as a very large currant, in two ranked racemes, which are frequently quite large and abundantly filled. It grows wild in Peru and Brazil, and is figured by Feuille  in 1725, but not as a cultivated plant, and is described by Linnaeus  in 1763.  The grape or cluster tomato is recorded in American gardens by Burr  in 1863, and as the red currant tomato by Vilmorin  in 1883 and 1885. It is an exceedingly vigorous and hardy variety, with delicate foliage, and fruits most abundantly. The berries make excellent pickles. 

 According to the test of cross-fertilization, few, if any, of the above are true species. Two only of the above named — the cherry and the currant tomato — do I find recorded in a truly wild condition. The tomato has, however, been under cultivation from a remote period by the Nahua and other Central American nations, and reached European and American culture, as all the evidence implies, in an improved condition. If there is any evidence that any of our so-called types arose spontaneously from the influences of culture, I have failed to note it. We may well ask, Why did not other forms appear during the interval from 1558 to 1623, when but one sort, and that figured as little variable, received the notice of the early botanists? 

 The modern names of the tomato, or love apple, are 

• in France, tomate, pomme d 'amour, pomme d'or, pomme du Perou ; 
• in Germany, tomate, liebesapfel ; 
• in Flanders and Holland, tomaat ; 
• in Italy, pomo d'oro ;
• in Spain and Portugal, tomate ;
• in Norway, kjoerlighedsaeble
• In Arabic, bydingan toumaten ; 
• in Burma, kha-yan-myae-phung ; 
• in Ceylon, maha-rata-tamattie ; 
• in the Deccan, wallwangee ; 
• in Egypt, bydingan toumaten ; 
• in Malaya, tomatte ; 
• in Tagalo, tomates, camatis ; 
• in Tamil, seemie-takalie-pidlam ;
• in Indian gardens, goot-begoon, oou laeetee buengun ; 
• in Mexico, jomatl ;
• in Japan, akanasu, red egg-plant. 
• 
  

Turnip. Brassica sp. 

 Vilmorin in his "Les Plantes Potageres," 1883, classes all the turnips under Brassica napus L. ; but the older authors referred them, more correctly as we think, to Brassica napus and B. rapa.   

Decandolle, who makes this distinction, separates the first into three groups, based on color, the white, yellow, and black ; the second into groups, comprising the white, yellow, black, red, and green. 

In the thirteenth century Albertus Magnus describes the napus as with a long root, which is eaten, and the rapa as having a spherical compressed bulb, and sometimes red in the stalk. 

The turnip is of ancient culture. Columella, 18 a.d., says the napus and the rapa are both grown, and the latter the larger and greener for the use of man and beasts, especially in France; the former not having a swollen, but a slender, root. He also speaks of the Mursian gongylis, which may be the round turnip, as being especially fine. 

The distinction between the napus and the rapa was not always held, as Pliny  uses the word napus generically, and says that there are five kinds, the 

• Corinthean, 
• Cleonaeum, 
• Liothasium, 
• Boeoticum, and the 
• Green. 

The Corinthean, the largest, with an almost bare root, grows on the surface, and not, as do the rest, under the soil. 

The Liothasium, also called Thracium, is the hardiest. 

The Boeoticum is sweet, of a notable roundness, and not very long as is the Cleonaeum. 

At Rome the Amiternian is in most esteem, next the Nursinian, and third our own kind (the green ?). 

In another place, under rapa he mentions two kinds, the one broad-bottomed (flat?), the other globular, and the most esteemed those of Nursia. The napus of Amiterninum, of a nature quite similar to the rapa, succeeds best in a cool place. He mentions that the rapa sometimes attain a weight of forty pounds. 

This weight has, however, been exceeded in modern times.  Matthiolus, in 1558, had heard of turnips that weighed a hundred pounds, and speaks of having seen long and purple sorts that weighed thirty pounds. Amatus Lusitanus, in 1524, speaks of turnips weighing fifty and sixty pounds. In England, in 1792, Martyn  says the greatest weight that he is acquainted with is thirty-six pounds. In California, about 1850, a turnip is recorded of one hundred pounds weight.  

Brassica napus esculenta DC.

Vilmorin

This differs from the Brassica rapa oblonga by its smooth and glaucous leaves. It surpasses other turnips by the sweetness of its flavor, and furnishes white, yellow, and black varieties. It is known as the Navet or French turnip.  It was apparently the napa of Columella.  It was certainly known to the early botanists, yet its synonymy is difficult to be traced from the figures. 

 I think, however, the following are correct: 

•  Napus. Trag., 1552, 730; Matth., 1554, 240; Pin., 1561, 144; Cam. Epit, 1586, 222; Dod., 1616, 674; Fischer, 1646. 
•  Bunias sive napus. Lob. ic, 1 591, I., 200. 
•  Bunias silvestris lobelii. Ger., 1597, 181. 
•  Napi. Cast. Dur., 161 7, 304. 
•  Bunias. Bodaeus, 1644, 773. 
•  Napus dulcis. Blackw., 1765, t. 410. 
•  Navet petit de Berlin. Vilm., 18.83,360. 
•  Teltow turnip. Vilm., 1885, 5 8 

 The navews are mentioned as under cultivation in England by Worlidge,  in 1683, as the French turnip by Wheeler, in 1763, and Miller's Dictionary, 1807.  Gasparin  says the navet de Berlin, which often acquires a great size, is much grown in Alsace and in Germany. In China, according to Bretschneider,  it was known in the fifth century. 

 Brassica rapa depressa DC. 

 This has a large root expanding under the origin of the stem into a thick, round, fleshy tuber, flattened at the top and bottom. It has white, yellow, black, red or purple, and green varieties. It seems to have been known from ancient times, and is described and figured in the earlier botanies. 

A.  Flattened both above and below; Vilmorin

 A. Flattened both above and below. 

 Rapum. Matth., 1554, 240; Cam. Epit., 1586, 218. 

 Rapum sive rapa. Pin., 1561, 143. 

 Rapa. Cast. Dur., 1617, 386. 

 Navet turnip. Vilm., 1883, 583. 

B. Flattened, but pointed below.
Rave d'Auvergne tardive

 B. Flattened, but pointed below. 

 Orbiculatum seu turbinatum rapum. Lob. ic., 1791, I., 197. 

 Rapum. Porta, Phytognom, 1591, 120. 

 Rapum vulgare. Dod., 16 16, 673. 

 Rave d'Auvergne tardive. Vilm., 1883., 369. 

Vilmorin

 C. Globular. 

 Rapum. Trag., 1552, 728. 

 Rapa, La Rave. Tourn., 1719, 113. 

 Navet jaune d'Hollande. Vilm., 1883, 370. 

 Yellow Dutch. Vilm., 1885, 588. . 

Brassica rapa oblonga DC. 

 This race differs from the preceding in having a long and oblong tuber tapering to the radicle. It seems an ancient form, — perhaps the Cleonaeum of Pliny. 

•  Vulgare rapum alterum. Trag., 1532, 729.
•  Rapum longum. Cam. Epit, 1586, 219. 
•  Rapum tereti, rotunda, oblongaque radici. Lob. ic., 1591, I., 197. 
•  Rapum oblongius. Dod., 1616, 673. 
•  Rapum sativum rotundum and oblongum. J. Bauh., 165 1, II., 838.
•  Rapa, La Rave. Tourn., 1719, 113. 
•  Navet de Briollay. Vilm., 1883, 372. 
• Briollay turnip. Vilm., 1885, 591.

 This representation by no means embraces all the turnips now known, as it deals with form only, and not with color and habits. In 1828 thirteen kinds were in Thorburn's American seed catalogue, and in 1887 thirty-three kinds. 

In France, twelve kinds were named by Pirolle in 1824, and by Petit in 1826. In 1887 Vilmorin's wholesale seed-list enumerates thirty-one kinds. 

 The turnip is believed to have reached England from Holland in 1550, but before this it had reached the New World. In 1540 Cartier sowed turnip seed at the present Montreal, in Canada. In 1609  turnips are mentioned in Virginia, as also in 1649; they are mentioned as cultivated in Massachusetts in 1629. 

In Peru they are said by Acosta, in 1604, to have increased so abundantly as to become a nuisance in the planting of grain. 

 The turnip is called 

• in France, navet, gros navet, grosse rave, naveau, navet turnips, rabiole, rabioule, rave plate, tornep, turneps, turnip ;
•  in Germany, herbst-rube, stoppel-rube ; 
• in Flanders and Holland, raap ; 
• in Denmark, roe;
• in Italy, navone, rapa; 
• in Spain and Portugal, nabo; 
• in Arabic, lift,  luft; 
• in Bengali, shalgram ; 
• in Persia, shalgram ;
•  in Sindh, gokhru ; 
• in Japan, busei, aona (the round form). 

Hmmm...is this the end of Sturtevant's articles?  No vegetable after "T"?   As far as I have found it is the last installment, but I will look again!