In many places Apples are believed to be capable of telling love-fortunes.
I had to share this with you. I didn't know any of this. I grew up in New Jersey near Newark and the daisy "Loves you, loves you not" lore was as far as we got! Next time I eat an apple I'll stick a seed on my head.
The customs of throwing the peel of an Apple over the head, and judging whether single blessedness or the married state awaits the person in the future is very old, and still well known in England. Some read in the shape of the peel, as it falls on the ground, the initial letter of the future sweetheart's name.
APPLE(Pyrus Malus). a, blossom ;J, section of same;c, d, sections of fruit
The German peasantry shoot an Apple-pip from the fingers on New Year's night, at the same time uttering a prayer, and watching the direction taken by the seed. The sweetheart may be looked for from the same direction.
In Austria, we are told that on St. Thomas's night an Apple is cut in two, and the seeds in each half carefully counted. If they are even, a marriage will soon follow; if one of the seeds should have been cut in two, the course of love will not be smooth.
Perhaps, however, this is not to be altogether regretted, if the old adage that "true love never runs smoothly" be true. If two be cut it indicates coming widowhood.
Something similar to this is found in the custom, common still among our young people, of counting the seeds of the same fruit, or sticking them on the forehead, to see which will remain longest in position.
On the Continent this fruit is very largely employed for these purposes by the superstitious, although, as among ourselves, the customs are now rapidly dying out.
THIS bean is of American origin, as its seed has been found in the mummy pits of Peru,and Bentham cites specimens spontaneous in the region of the River Amazon and Central Brazil.
Thevetus, in 1558, published his " Les Singularities de la France Antarctique ou Amerique," and in this he speaks of the "Americanorum Faba, omnino alba, valde compressae, nostratibus latiores et longiores," which is probably this species. (Trans: The beans are the Americans, it is a white, strongly flattened, broader and longer than the our country 's.)
The striae radiating from the eye of the Lima bean make its identification very easy, and hence we cannot be in error in our recognition of the figures given by Lobelin 1591, Clusiusin 1601, J. Bauhinin 1651, and Chabraius in 1673, and Clusius notes that he first grew it in 1576.
Clusius, C., Rariorum plantarum historia - 1601
The synonymy, as I have studied it out, is as follows:
Phaseoli magni late albi. Lob. It, 1591, 2, 60.
B. peregrini I. genus alterrum. Clus. Hist, 1601, 2, 223 (seen in 1576) fig.
Phaseolus, lato, striata, sive radiato semine. J. Bauh., 1651, II., 267, fig.
P. novi orbis, latus, totos candidus sim-laci hortensis affinis. J. B., 1651, II., 268, fig. Chabr., 1673, 137, fig.
Phaseolus lunatus, L. sp., 1763, 1016.
P. inamaenus, L. sp., 1763, 1016.
P. bipunctatus. Jac. Hort., I., t. 100, ex Mill. Diet.P. rufus. Jacq. Hort., I., 13, t. 34, ex Mill. Diet.
P. saccharatus. Macfad., 1837, 282.
P. puberulus. Kunth. Syn., 1825, IV., 106.
Bushel or Sugar Bean. A Treat, on Gard. (1818).
Sugar Bean. Maycock, Barb., 1830, 293.
Lima Bean. McMahon, 1806.
This bean requires a warm season, and hence is not grown so much in northern and central Europe as in this country. Vilmorin describes three varieties and names two others. Martens, however, describes five well marked varieties.
Before I continue with Sturtevant on Limas, I have to share this site. Mario Nenno's Bean Seed Images, project collects seed images of the 80 accepted species of the Genus Phaseolus and some of the related Genus Vigna. How cool is that!!
1. The large white Lima is among those figured by Lobel and by J. Bauhin, and this places its appearance in Europe in 1591, and according to Martens it is the Phaseolus itiamcenus L. It was in American gardens in 1828, and probably before.
2. The potato Lima is a white bean, much thickened and rounded as compared with the first. It seems to be fairly figured by Lobel in 1591, and the Phaseolus limensis Macfad. justly esteemed in Jamaica.
3. The small white Lima or Sieva, saba, Carolina, Carolina sewee and West Indian, is esteemed on account of its greater hardiness over the other varieties. It is also well figured by Lobel in 1591, under the name Phaseoli parvi pallido-albi ex America delati. On account of the names, and the hardiness of the plant, and as being probably cultivated by the Indians, I am disposed to suggest that it may be the Bushel or Sugar bean, esteemed very delicate, and of various colors, as white, marbled, and green, and grown in Virginian gardens before 1818.
Lawson in 1700 says: "The Bushel bean, a spontaneous growth, very flat, white, and mottled with a purple figure, was trained on poles " in the Carolinas. The Sieva, if a synonym of the Bushel bean, is the white form, and was in American gardens before 1806. Vilmorin mentions a variety of the Sieva spotted with red.
4. The speckled Lima has white seeds striped and spotted with a deep, dark red. The figures of Lobel, 1591, under Phaseoli rubri, very well represent the cultivated variety, as also a sort sent me as growing spontaneously in Florida in abandoned Indian fields.
5. The large red I cannot trace; it may be the blood red bean Martens received from Texas, Sierra Leone and Batavia. It differs from the next but in size.
6. The small red answers well to the description given of Phaseolus rufus Jacq. by Martens, and this put its appearance at 1770.
These six varieties, with their synonyms, include all the Lima beans with which I am acquainted, but there are a number of other sorts described, which sooner or later will appear and be claimed as originations. A careful reflection over my list will clearly convince that our varieties are all of ancient occurrence, and that there have been no originations under culture within modern times.
A black white-streaked form is recorded in Cochin China by Loureiro; a white black-streaked form is figured by Clusius in 1601 ; a black as Phaseolus derasus, Schrank, in Brazil. The P. bipunctatus Jacq. has not as yet reached our seedsmen, although grown at Reunion under the name of pois du Cap.
Off topic, this gourmet food company also had a ginger mustard that looked fantastic!!
Martens describes several others with a yellow band about the eye, and variously colored, and one with an orange ground and black markings occurs among the beans from the Peruvian graves at Ancon at the National Museum.
This plant is yet to be rarely found in gardens. At the present day, says Vilmorin, Lovage is almost exclusively used in the manufacture of confectionery; formerly the leaf stalks and bottoms of the stems were eaten, blanched like celery.
The whole fields plant has a strong, sweetish, aromatic odor, and a warm, pungent taste, and is probably grown now in America, as in 1806, rather as a medicinal than as a culinary herb. It appears to have been known to Ruellius in 1536, who calls it Levisticum officinarum, and was only seen in gardens by Chabraeus in 1677.
It is called
in France ache de montagne, liveche;
in Germany, liebstock;
in Spain, apio de monte
Clairvoyant Reminiscences and Herbal Recipes uses lovage in herbal cures. I include it because it is one of those wacko combinations you come across that are so amusing. Another short article that showed up was this, from the 1870 periodical Once a Week.
Lovage, levisticum of botany, a plant which was formerly of great repute as a potherb, and at present is better known, I hear, to the lovers of vulgar cordials, as compounded with gin for certain Bacchanalian ailments, has, on Dr. Johnson's authority, in connection with other ingredients, a virtue in the relief of rheumatism.
I was reading lately in one of the grandiloquent Doctor's letters—vide Boswell—to Bennet Langton, this little recipe: "take equal quantities of flour of sulphur and flour of mustard-seed; make them an electuary with honey or treacle, and take a bolus as big as a nutmeg several times a-day, as you can bear it; drinking after it a quarter of a pint of the infusion of the root of lovage." In one case, at any rate, the author of Rasselas informs his correspondent this medicine worked well. "The patient"— he writes—"was very old, the pain very violent, and the relief, I think, speedy and lasting." As a notion, the adoption of which can do no harm, even if it should do no great good, I am—with thanks to Dr. Johnson—thinking of shortly giving it a personal trial.
This plant is considered nearly indispensable in French gardens, although it is not an esculent, but the leaves are used for garnishing. It was known to Camerarius in 1588, and was only known to Dodonaeus, in 1616, as a cultivated plant.
The mallows which were used by the Romans as a pot-herb appear to be the Malva rotundifolia L.
Even Pythagoras thought much of this spinage, and it is even now said to be grown extensively on the banks of the Nile. M. sylvestris L. appears also to have been grown by the Romans as a pot herb, and M. verticillata L. has been recognized among Chinese vegetables from the 5th century.
All these, and, indeed, all malvas have now disappeared from cultivation as edibles in European countries. (Why?)
The Curled Mallow (M. crispa) is called
in France mauve frisée, mauve crepue, mauve à feuilles crispées;
The M. rotundifolia L. was carried to North America previous to 1669, and now appears as a weed.
It is the mallows of Britain and America,
the mauve of France,
the runde kasepappel of Germany,
the malva of Italy,
the moloha or molohe of Greece.
In Yemen called hobsen
(Gosh...Sturtevant felt the need to vary his phrasing!)
The M. verticillata L. is called
in Egypt khobbeyzeh;
in China tung han ts'ai.
Mangold. Beta vulgaris, var.
Mangolt was the old German name for the Chard, or rather for the beet species, but in recent times it has become applied to a large growing root of the beet kind, used for forage purposes. In the selections size and the perfection of the root above ground have been important elements, as well as the desire for novelty, and hence we have a large number of very distinct appearing sorts,—the long red, about two-thirds above ground, the olive shaped or oval, the globe, and the flat-bottomed Yellow d'Obendorf.
The colors to be noted are the red, the yellow, and the white.
The size often obtained in single specimens is enormous; a weight of 135 pounds has been claimed in California, and Gasparin in France vouches for a root weighing 132 pounds.
I have ascertained very little concerning the history of mangolds. They certainly are of modern introduction. Olivier de Serres in France, 1629, describes a red beet which was cultivated for cattle-feeding, and speaks of it as a recent acquisition from Italy.
In England it is said to have arrived from Metz in 1786, but I find a book advertised of which the following is the title:— Culture and use of the Mangel Wurzel, a Root of Scarcity, translated from the French of the Abbe de Commerell, by J. C. Lettsom, with colored plates, third edition, 1787,—by which it would appear that it was known earlier. (Someone else was taken with the name "Root of Scarcity" and wrote it on the title page of the book :-)
McMahon records it in American culture in 1806. Vilmorin describes sixteen kinds, and mentions many others.
The beet is one of the plants most easy to improve by selection, as the experience of Vilmorin proves, as well as the more perfected varieties which are constantly being advertised. I doubt not but that the prototypes of all the distinct forms could be found in nature, but unfortunately I find no descriptions which I can use to illustrate this idea, which receives such constant support with other plants whenever facilities for investigation occur.
The mangold, mangold-wurzel or Root of Scarcity is called
in France Disette, Racine d'abondance, Betterave Disette;
in Germany, mangel-worsel, futter-rube, futter-runklerube;
in Flanders and Holland, mangel-wortel;
in Spain remolacha de grav cultivo, betabel campestu.
The fruits of the Martynias, when gathered while young and tender, make an excellent pickle, and they are occasionally grown in our gardens for this purpose. There are two species.
M. proboscidea Glox. This purple-flowered form occurs wild on the banks of the Mississippi and lower tributaries to New Mexico. It is also cultivated in gardens further north, about which it is apt to become naturalized. It is mentioned under American cultivation in 1841. It was known in England as a plant of ornament in 1738, and perhaps there has scarcely as yet entered the kitchen garden.
M. lutea Lindl. This species, originally from Brazil, has yellow flowers. It does not appear to be in American gardens, as I have never seen it, nor is its seed advertised by our seedsmen. It reached Europe in 1824. It is described by Vilmorin as under kitchen garden culture.
The Martynia, or Unicorn plant, is called
in Germany, gemsenhornerz
in Italy, testa di quaglia ;
in Malta, testa di guaglia.
in France martynia, cornaret, comes du diable, bicorne, ongles du diable;
The botanist’s repository [H.C. Andrews] - 1809-1810
Jacquin, NJ von, Florae Austriaceae (1773)
Meadow Cabbage. Cirsium oleraceum Scop.
This plant is included among vegetables by Vilmorin, although he says it does not appear to be ever cultivated.
The swollen root-stock, gathered before the plant flowered, was formerly used as a table vegetable. It does not appear to have ever reached American gardens or use.
Both the word melon and pepon have been used in a generic sense, and sometimes as synonymous. Albertus Magnus, in the thirteenth century, says, melons, which some call pepones, have the seed and the flower very nearly like those of the cucumber, and also says in speaking of the cucumber that the seeds are like those of the pepo.
Under the head of the watermelon, citrullus, he calls it pepo, with a smooth, green skin, but the pepo is commonly yellow and of an uneven surface, and as if round semicircular sections were orderly arranged together.
In 1536 Reullius describes our melon as the pepo;
in 1542 Fuchsius describes the melon, but figures it under the name of pepo.
In 1550 Roszlin figures the melon under the name of pepo, and in
1558 Matthiolus figures it under the name of melon.
The Greek name of pepon, and the Italian, German, Spanish, and French of melon, variously spelled, are given among synonyms by various authors of the sixteenth century, and melones sive pepones are used by Pinaeus in 1561, melone and pepone by Castor Durante in 1617, and by Gerarde in England, in 1597.
Melons and pompions are used synonymously, and the melon is called muske-melon or million.
Whether the ancients knew the melon is a matter of doubt. Dioscorides, in the first century, says the flesh or pulp (cara) of the pepo used in food is diuretic. Pliny, about the same period, says a new form of cucumber has lately appeared in Campania called melopepo, which grows on the ground in a round form, and he adds, as a remarkable circumstance, in addition to their color and odor, that when ripe, although not suspended, yet the fruit separates from the stem at maturity. Galen, in the second century, treating of medicinal properties, says the autumn fruit [i.e., ripe] do not excite vomiting as do the unripe, and further says mankind abstain from the inner flesh of the pepo, where the seed is borne, but eat it in the melopepo.
A half century later Palladius gives directions for planting melones, and speaks of them as being sweet and odorous. Apicius, a writer on cookery, about 230 A. D., directs that pepones and melones be served with various spices corresponding in part to present customs; and Nonnius, an author of the sixth century, speaks of cucumbers which are odoriferous. In the seventh century Paulus Agineta, a medical writer, mentions the medicinal properties of the melopepo as being of the same character, but less than that of the pepo, and separates these from the cucurbita and cucumis, not differing from Galen, already quoted.
From these remarks concerning odor and sweetness, which particularly apply to our melon, and the mention of the falling spontaneously of the ripe fruit, a characteristic of no other garden vegetable, we are inclined to believe that these references are to the melon, and more especially so as the authors of the sixteenth and following centuries make mention of many varieties, as Amatus Lusitanus, in 1554, who says, "quorum varietas ingens est" (Trans.-"the variety is enormous") and proceeds to mention some as thin skinned, others as thicker skinned, some red fleshed, others white.
I know scarcely enough about melons as yet to classify into types, as I am only acquainted with fifty-eight names of varieties under growth, but varieties occur that can be described as round, flattened, oblong, oval, long; as smooth, netted, ribbed, waited; as white, green, red, orange fleshed; as early, late, and winter.
The following may be considered as notes only; not as complete classification, nor even as any classification, and a single and the earlier reference is in most cases only used.
1. Early and late melons, as also winter melons, are described by Amatus in 1554; summer and winter by Bauhin in 1623.
2. White and red fleshed are described by Amatus in 1554; yellow fleshed by Dodonaeus in 1616; green fleshed by Marcgrav in 1648; green, golden, pale yellow, and ashen, by Bauhin in 1623.
3. Sugar melons are named sucrinos by Ruellius in 1536; succrades rouges and succrades blanches by Chabraeus in 1677; and succrius and succredes by Dalechampius in 1587.
4. Netted melons are named by Camerarius in 1586, as also the ribbed. The warted are mentioned in the Adversaria in 1570; rough, warted, and smooth by Bauhin in 1623.
5. The round, long, oval, and pear-form by Gerarde in 1597; the quince form by Dalechampius in 1587; the oblong by Dodonasus in 1616; the round, oblong, depressed, or flat by Bauhin in 1623.
1895
The quality of melons varies widely, even in the same variety, under different conditions of growth, as was well known in 1513, when a Spanish author, Henera, says, "If the melon is good, it is the best fruit that exists, and none other is preferable to it. If it is bad, it is a bad thing. We are wont to say that the good are like good women, and the bad like bad women."
The melon reached America nearly with the discovery, for in 1494 ripe melons are recorded as grown by the companions of Columbus.
Below: Video - 3.5 minutes
Juan Sánchez Cotán, 1560--1627 Quince, Cabbage, Melon, and Cucumber ca. 1602
In 1516 "melons different from those here" are mentioned in Central America, but perhaps not the melon, but a cucurbit.
In 1535, however, Cartier speaks of "musk melons"on the St. Lawrence.
In New Mexico, melons are named by Gomara in 1540, and also 1542.
In 1565, melons were abounding in Hayti.
In 1582 de Espijo speaks of melons and pumpkins as grown by the Indians of New Mexico;
in 1584 as found in Virginia" by Captains Amidos and Barlow; and again as muskemelons in 1609.;
In 1609 also they were seen on the Hudson River, and are described as abundant in New England by Master Graves" in 1629, as also by Woods.
In 1806 McMahon names thirteen kinds under American culture. At the present time at least a hundred different names of varieties can be collected.
The melon or muskmelon is called
in France and Spain, melon;
in Germany, melone;
in Flanders and Holland, moloen;
in Italy, popone, melone;
in Portugal, melas;
in Greece, peponia;
in Russia, dina
in Norway, melon ,
in Arabic, beteekh, kirboozeh, domeyri, dremmaijre ;
in Bengali, kerbooja, khurbuz phuti;
in Burmah, tha-khwahmwae;
in Comanche Indian, pehena;
in Ceylon, rata-komadu;
in Hindustani, karbooja;
in Japan, tenkwa, kara uri;
in Malay, labofrangee,
in Persia, kharbuza,
in Sindh, gidhro ,
in Tagalo, tabogo ;
in Tamil, molam;
in Tartar and Turkish, kaun.
Mint. Mentha viridis L.
This garden herb was well known to the ancients, and is mentioned in all early mediaeval lists of plants.
Amatus Lusitanus in 1554 says it is always in gardens, and later botanists confirm this statement for Europe.
It was in American gardens in 1806, and probably far earlier, for it was collected by Clayton in Virginia about 1739 as a naturalized plant.
Mint, green mint, or spearmint is called
in France menthe vert;
in Spain, hierva buena, ortelana;
in Italy, menta;
in Germany, muntz;
in Arabic, nahanaha ;
in the Mauritius, menthe;
in India, podeena ;
in the Deccan, pahari-poodenah?
Mugwort. Artemisia vulgaris L.
This plant, of insignificant use, is yet included among the plants of the garden by European writers. The leaves are strong, bitter, and aromatic, and are sometimes used for seasoning.
It was formerly employed to a great extent for flavoring beer, before the introduction of the hop, and the leaves are said to have been used for food in China in the fourteenth century.
It is as yet scarcely in the vegetable garden, and it is unnecessary to inquire when the first entry was effected.
The mugwort is called
in France, armoise, couronne de St. Jean, herbe a cent gonts; (I think that is a typo and it should be gouts; "herb if 100 tastes" perhaps?)
Mustard was well known to the ancients, but the use seems to have been more medicinal than dietetic, yet Apicius, about 230 A. D., makes frequent uses of it in his receipts on cookery, and in an edict of Diocletian, A. D. 301, it is mentioned along with alimentary substances. In Europe, during the middle ages, mustard was used with the salted meats which formed such a large portion of the winter diet of our ancestors. It is, however, as a vegetable that we treat of it here.
Sinapis alba L.—White mustard is grown in gardens for the young leaves, which are used in salads, and about London is grown in gardens to a large extent. In 1542 Fuchsius, a German writer, says it is planted everywhere in gardens. In 1597, in England, Gerarde says it is not common, but he has distributed the seed, so that he thinks it is reasonably well known.
It is mentioned in American gardens in 1806.
White mustard, or Salad mustard, is called
in France, moutarde blanche, moutardin, plante an beurre, seneve blanc;
in Germany, gelber senf;
in Flanders, witte mostaard;
in Holland, gele mosterd or mostaard;
in Italy, senapa bianca;
in Spain, mostaza blanca;
in Greece, agriourouva, napi, sinapi;
in China, kai kie.
Sinapis nigra L.—The black mustard is described as a garden plant by Albertus Magnus in the thirteenth century, and is mentioned by the botanists of the sixteenth century.
It is, however, more grown as a field crop for its seed, from which the mustard of commerce is derived, yet finds place also as a salad plant. Two varieties are described, the black mustard of Sicily and the large-seeded black.
It was in American gardens in 1806 or earlier.
Black mustard, brown mustard, or red mustard is called
in France, moutarde noire, navuce rouge, russebau, seneve noir;
in Germany, brauner senf;
in Flanders, zwarte mustaard;
in Holland, bruine mosterd;
in Spain, mostaza nigra ;
in Italy, senape, senapi.
Mustard.— Chinese Cabbage-Leaved.—This vegetable, the species not indicated, is described by Vilmorin as under European culture, and he says that in warm countries it forms one of the most highly esteemed green vegetables.
In China Sinapis brassicata L. is said to be cultivated abundantly and S. chinensis L. to occur in Cochin-China in two varieties. S. pekinensis Lour. was introduced to France from China in 1837. This plant, says Livingston, is more extensively used by all classes of the Chinese than any other,—perhaps than all the others together. It is carried about the public streets for sale, boiled, in which state its smell is extremely offensive to Europeans.
It is recorded as in the United States by Burr in 1863. In Portugal its seeds were sown by Loureiro on his return from Cochin China in the eighteenth century.
