1893 - Nice Summer Harvest Illustration - D. M. Ferry Seed Co.

I like the way the pea pods are placed like flags!

1890s (mostly) - Petunia History by L.H. Bailey and Others; and One Amazing Color Plate

This astonishing flower has won my heart.  How the heck it is a Petunia violacea I don't know.

It looks like the inside of a ripped fig.  I wonder how big it is.

I never had petunias in my garden, so I never thought about petunia species.

 There was something about the sticky foliage that repulsed me, plus they were messy. Recently I have begun to flirt with them. I can no longer resist the colors and patterns! And they have learned to be tidier sometime in the last 40 years!

Now that I am "petunia aware" I am catching up on a few centuries of petunia news and gossip.
Here are some that caught my eye.

When I insert my two cents into an article's text I try to remember to do it in red type.

A really nice, current, one page historical overview of petunias in the trade can be found at the Esbenshade's  Garden Centers site.

1827 - a letter to the editor

On the Culture of Petunia nyctaginiflora. 

By Robert Sweet, F. L. S., Author of Flora Australasica, Sweet's Hortus Britannicus, &c. &c.
Dear Sir, 

Thinking it might be interesting to some of your readers to know to what perfection the Petunia nyctaginiflora might be brought in a sheltered border of the flower-garden, I am induced to send you the following particulars of one cultivated in my garden. 

In October, 1826, I turned out of a pot a seedling plant about six inches high, with two or three shoots to it, into a border by the side of a wall, facing the south, where it continued to grow rapidly all last winter, and never had a leaf injured. In very severe frosty weather, I covered it with a mat, but left it exposed whenever the weather was milder. By the middle of March, it was above eighteen inches high, with numerous branches, above half of which I was obliged to cut away in the beginning of April, when I first tied it up to a stick.

 After this it grew very fast, and, by the end of May, began to be covered with flowers. By the middle of July it was above six feet high, with many hundreds of its fine large white flowers open every day, each flower continuing in perfection two or three days; and by the middle of August it was eight feet high, and bushy in proportion, covered with flowers from the ground to the top, some thousands being expanded at one time, so that, at a distance, it appeared like a white sheet. 

In this state it continued to the beginning of the present month (November, 1827), when the flowers began to open more sparingly as the nights became longer; but it still continues to open a few, and is quite covered with others in a bud state, but those of course will not open. 

I intend shortly to cut it down to the young shoots, which are springing up in abundance from the bottom, and which I expect will produce me an equally fine plant for next year. 

Wishing great success to your interesting Magazine,
I am, dear Sir, &c. 

R. Sweet.

No. 20. Camera Square, Chelsea,

November 20. 1827.

PS. — I omitted to mention that the flowers of my plant were double the size of those that are produced on weak plants; consequently nearly double the size of those represented in the figure of it in my British Flower-garden. I have sent you a few seeds of my Alstroemeria hirtella, which has ripened in my garden by the side of the Petunia. You had better sow them in a pot at once, and turn them out in a warm border in spring. — R. S.

1838 - The British Flower Garden, Robert Sweet

Sweet's book was in 7 volumes...

Vol. VI

Vol. V

Vol. III

Vol. I

1836 -Now, this is identified as a Petunia nyctaginiflora violacea.  It is from 

Paxton's Magazine of Botany, and Register of Flowering Plants, Volume 2.

See the next article to follow  the parentage of this first modern looking petunia hybrid.

1893 - This article that explains the history of the modern petunia is online at Google Books  but like many of the b&w scans of small type journals it is fuzzy and the OCR is not reliable. 

Liberty Hyde Bailey's Hortus Third was my first big investment in gardening/botany books.  I would pour through it back when if you didn't own the book you were sunk until you got to a bigger library.  I feel guilty not touching my books more often now...they are old friends.  I rearrange them every 5 years, more or less, so they know they are still loved.

American Gardening, Volume 14

EVOLUTION OF THE  PETUNIA. 

Liberty Hyde Bailey

The modern petunia is a strange compound of the two original species which were introduced to cultivation less than three-quarters of a century ago. The first petunia to be discovered was found by Commerson on the shores of the La Plata in South America, and from the dried specimens which he sent home the French botanist, Jussieu, constructed the genus petunia, and named the plant Petunia nyctaginiflora, in allusion to the four-o'clock-like or nyctaginia-like flowers. 

The plant appears to have been introduced into cultivation in 1823. It was a plant of upright habit, thick, sticky leaves and stems and very long-tubed white flowers, which exhale a strong perfume at nightfall. This plant, nearly or even wholly pure, is not infrequent in old gardens, and fair strains of it can be had in the market.

 I remember that it self sowed year after year in the old garden in my younger days, and even now an occasional plant may be found in some undisturbed corner. This plant is fairly well represented in the drawing. The stem leaves of this species are said to be sessile—or without stalks—but the lower leaves in strong specimens like that in the engraving are often conspicuously narrowed into long petioles. Possibly this is a mark of hybridity, but I am rather inclined to think that the pure species has the lower leaves prominently stalked. This old-fashioned petunia is a coarse plant, and is now little known. It was not a difficult matter for the second species to dislodge it.

This second species of petunia first flowered in the Glasgow Botanical Garden in July, 1831, from seeds sent the fall before from Buenos Ayres by Mr. Tweedie; and in 1831 an excellent colored plate was made of it, under the name of Salpiglossis integrifolia.  This is a neater plant than the other, with a decumbent base, narrower leaves and small violet-purple flowers, which have a very broad or ventricose tube scarcely twice longer than the slender calyx-lobes. This neat little plant has been known under a variety of names, having been referred to nierembergia by two or three botanists. Lindley was the first to refer it to the genus petunia, and called it Petunia violacea, the name which it

Petunia phoenicea

Maund, B., The botanic garden, (1847-1848).

still bears. 

It was also early known as Petunia phoenicea but this name is forgotten by the present generation of gardeners. It became popular immediately upon its introduction. In August, 1833, Joseph Harrison wrote that it was ''one of the most valuable acquisitions that has been made to our collections of late  years,".

Petuniania violacea early hybridized with the older white petunia, P. nyctaginiflora, and as early as 1837 a number of these hybrids—indistinguishable from the common garden forms of the present day—were illustrated in colors in the Botanical Magazine. 

Sir W J. Hooker, who described these hybrids, declared that "it must be confessed that here, as in many other vegetable productions, the art and skill of the horticulturist has improved nature." 

''Cultivation alone," he wrote, '' has, indeed, very much increased the size of the flowers and foliage of this plant (P. violacea), so that it can scarcely be recognized as belonging to the same species as the native specimens sent by Mr. Tweedie."

P. Violacea

 This was about the time that Phlox Drummondii was becoming popular in England, having been sent there from Texas, in 1835, by Drummond.   These two plants were novelties. "These varieties of petunia and the Phlox Drummondii," Hooker continues, "were decidedly among the greatest ornaments of the greenhouse in the Glasgow Botanic Garden during the month of May (1836), a season too early for them to come to perfection in the open border." 

These hybrid petunias were even described as a distinct species, Nierembcrgia Atkinsiana; and this fact is still remembered in some books in Petunia violacca var. Atkinsiana. 

Nierembcrgia phoeniciaMaund, B., The botanic garden, (1847-1848).

Harrison gave a colored plate of these hybrid petunias, in 1837 in his Floriculturai Cabinet, but without description.   He says, in an earlier issue of the magazine for that year, that the "impregnation of P. violacea and P. nyctaginiflora has produced several very charming varieties, such as pale pink with a dark center, sulphur with dark center, white with dark center, and others streaked and veined with dark. 

The size of the flowers of some of these hybrids has been much increased, some being three inches across." It would be interesting to know if Petunia intermedia, which was introduced about the same time as P. violacea, and which appears to be lost to cultivation, entered into any of these early hybrids. Here, then, our garden petunias started, as hybrids; but the most singular part of the history is that the true old Petunia violacea  is lost to cultivation.

The pen-drawing herewith shows the closest approach to the true P. violacea which I have

observed in several years' study of the petunia. Two or three plants came from a packet of mixed seed. But even this shows a flower-tube too long and a limb or border too wide; and perhaps the leaves are too broad. The nearest approach to the true species, among the named varieties which I have seen, is the neat little white-tubed, purple-limbed Countess of Ellesmere.   

Vilmorin makes this variety a subdivision of Petunia violacea, and calls it Gloire de Segrez, or Petunia violacea var. oculata.  I imagine that even Lindley did not have the pure species when he described P. violacea in 1833, for he says that it differs from P. nyctaginiflora "in nothing whatever except the inflated tube of its corolla and the size of its embryo." 

The common form of garden petunia is well shown in the illustration, page 281(above). Here the plant is low and slender, like the old P. violacea, but the tube is greatly lengthened and reduced in diameter by the influence of P. nyctaginiflora, and the colors sport into every combination of the purple and white cf the original parents. These little petunias assume a fairly permanent light purple shade when left to themselves for a time, and they then reproduce themselves with tolerable accuracy; and they afford an admirable example of a hybrid which is abundantly fertile and which holds its own year after year.

Edwards's Botanical Register,  (1835) artist -SA Drake

Various curiously marked types of petunias have appeared and are lost. One of the early forms had a redbody color, with grass-green borders. This was figured by Harrison in 1838 under the name of Petunia marginata frasina. These green-bordered strains appear now and then, and Mr. Carman, in using them in crossing experiments, obtained "rosettes of green leaves without

Petunia, Burpee's Defiance Strain.—Hybrid

 the rudiments of calyx, corolla, stamens or pistils."

 A faintly striped variety, called Petunia violacea, was also figured by Harrison at the same time. The stripes originated in the throat of the flower and ran outwards, as they do in most of the striped sorts of the present day; but in 1844 he announced a variety, Petunia Nixenii, in which the stripes originate at the border of the flower and proceed inwards.


The most singular development in these hybrid petunias is the appearance of the very broad-mouthed fringed flowers, with short, sessile and more or less trough-like leaves.  A flower of one of these, from the strain sold as Burpee's Defiance, is shown in the photograph. These forms may not come true from seed, but among any batch of seedlings flowers of the most remarkable beauty of shape and intensity of color may be found, and in some of them the texture of the flower is almost as firm as that of a rose petal. 

A seedling from this Burpee's Defiance strain is shown in the pen drawing (page 282). I have called it the Cornell. The flower is of the most intense royal purple, with a velvety texture which reminds one of the richest silk plush. This velvet surface of petunia flowers is very marked in some of the recent forms, and I suppose that the character comes from Petunia violacea, which is said by Vilmorin to have had a velvety cast. This Cornell propagates true from cuttings. Some petunias do not. The double fringed petunia, shown so well on page 277 (The photo of a collection of petunia blooms in a grid way down below), is the highest development of the plant; but by most persons the gorgeous single forms of the Defiance and other strains will be preferred. 

Of late years the improvement of the petunia has been comparatively neglected, but it is worthy of greater attention from flower lovers. Yet, during 1892 twenty-six new varieties were introduced in this country. To scientists it has particular interest, because the contemporaneous forms have developed widely from the well known original species within little more than half a century.

—L. H. Bailey.

Mills’ garden annual : 1895
Hmmm...Mill's Defiance? Note shape of illustration compared to Burpee's colored lithograph right above it!

1893 - letter to the editor - from G. A. McTavish, British Columbia.

American Gardening, Volume 14

1893 catalog

THE HORTICULTURE AND THE BOTANY 

OF AN OLD-FASHIONED FLOWER.

PETUNIAS have long been attractive to me. Some twelve years ago, having succeeded in raising a few plants with double flowers from imported seed, I determined to try my hand at pollinating a few blossoms, in hope of getting a double flower of my own, as I may say, parentage. It may be as well to state here that double petunias, like many other double flowers, do not yield any seed themselves, but in order to get seed which will yield double flowers a single-flowering variety must be fertilized with the pollen from a double flower, when the seed from this flower will yield a certain percentage of double flowering plants.

My first attempts at pollinating were of the crudest description. I simply took the anthers from a double flower and placed them on the stigma of the one I wished to pollinate. This being my first attempt at pollination, and owing to the crudeness of my method, I was not very successful, but I succeeded in getting a few double flowers from the seedlings, flowers which would not be given a second glance now, but none of my best flowers of later production have given me half the satisfaction that those few poor ones did. They were double —there was no mistake about that—and they proved to me that I could grow double flowers if I wanted to. From that small beginning —I do not believe that I pollinated over a dozen flowers—I have continued year after year, getting a new strain from this man and another from that, to cross with those I already had, and the result is shown in the illustration of a few of my seedlings of 1892.

It may be prejudice on my part, but I must say that I have a strong partiality for a bed of petunias. Hardly any other plant which is used for summer planting gives the satisfaction that the petunia does. It is a rapid grower, a free bloomer, and is not, at least with me, troubled with insect pests. The best double flowers also make excellent pot plants, and give a constant show of bloom throughout the entire summer.

For pot culture, or for any one wishing to grow double flowers entirely, it is always better to procure plants of named varieties from a florist, but a packet of good seed will always yield a large percentage of double flowers. They will not all come double, as some always take after the female parent, the single flower, but at least half ought to be double. To me the great charm of growing seedlings consists in the uncertainty. One watches the flowers expanding. Is this going to be a double? Is that? Yes, here is one that there is no mistake about. Look at the mass of petals, still showing green, but there is not room in the corolla to contain them all, and one watches them, day by day, until the color comes and the fully developed flower is there, in all its beauty.

To obtain the best result, I sow the seed in March, in either a hotbed or in the house in shallow boxes, covering it very lightly with fine soil. When the seedlings are about half an inch high, I prick them into small pots, and about the end of May plant out into the border. The petunia is a gross feeder, likes a rich soil and an abundance of water, and the plants should have plenty of room for their development. I plant them a foot apart each way, and in a short time the ground cannot be seen between the plants. Owing to the constant hybridizing that this plant undergoes in the production of double flowers, it is almost impossible to give a description of the colors of any single variety propagated from cuttings.

For the sake of any of my readers who might desire to try growing double seed, I will describe my system, which I find gives the best results. First, in order to have plants of strong vitality, in the late summer I pick out the best of the seedlings of that year, both double and single, and strike cuttings, which are wintered in the ordinary way, in a cool greenhouse. Another point which I am particular about is. if possible, to see that all the single plants show signs of their double parentage. This may be seen in a small leaflet growing out of one or more of the anthers. These produce seed freely, although, as a rule, only when pollinated by hand. I never propagate for seed growing

from plants which have been for several years in cultivation, as I find that they seem to lose in vigor by constant propagation from cuttings.

At the end of May I plant out in a sheltered spot in rich soil these wintered plants, the singles against a wire trellis and the doubles in the ordinary way, a foot apart. The single plants are trained to the trellis for convenience in pollinating. All the flowers that are not hand-pollinated are picked off, so that all the strength of the plants may be devoted to the development of the double seed, and that there may be no danger of mixing single seed with it. As soon as the flowers of the double plants are fully expanded they are picked, torn to pieces, and the anthers carefully picked out and placed in a sunny window to dry. As soon as the single flowers can be opened by hand, I remove the anthers with a pair of tweezers. This must be done before the anthers burst, for the minute they do this the flower is no longer of any use to the hybridizer. When the flower opens, the double pollen is applied to the stigma with a camel's-hair brush, the flower is drawn into the shape of a bag and tied with thread, and the operation is complete. They are tied to prevent insects carrying pollen from other flowers and destroying the efforts of the hybridizer.

The principal difference between my system and that of most other growers is in planting the petunias in the open ground. The claim is usually made that the seed is "pot grown;" that is, from plants grown in pots. My contention is, and I think that I have pretty well proved it in practice, that a plant grown in a pot has not the vigor of one whose roots are allowed the range of a garden-bed, and consequently the pot-grown plant is not in a position to yield the same quality of seed of one grown in the open ground, while a continuance of the practice of pot-growing must necessarily impair the vitality of the parent plant, and through it that of its offspring. 

While I am satisfied that our climate here is one remarkably suited to the best development of the petunia, I think that in any place where the plants can be grown in the open ground, seed from such plants will give better results than will that from plants grown in pots. This is may experience.
(I find this next bit charming.)

The flowers shown in the engraving are all from named varieties, and their names and the colors which they showed last year are here given: 

The one at the upper left-hand corner of the engraving is named Rita, and is white, blotched with carmine.

The one at the right of it is Hilda, a purple.

To the right of Hilda is Comox, a purple, tipped with white.

Directly below Rita is Aimee, a white, blotched with rose.

To the right of Aimee is Naniamo, a white.

To the right of that is Annie, a white, shaded with rose.

In the third row, the left-hand flower is Cariboo, white, veined and tinted with rose.

The middle one is Vancouver, white, shaded with light purple.

Lilian is at the right, and is carmine, tipped with white.

In the lowest row, at the left, is Zuadra, a light purple, tipped with white.

At the right is Alberni, a purple, bordered with white.

The flower at the lower right-hand corner is named Cicely, and is a white, blotched with purple and shaded with carmine.
—G. A. Mctavish, British Columbia.  (who loved his petunias...)

Just having fun with Rita, Hilda, and Comox.       I wondered where Comox came from since the others are ladies names, and I found the name Comox  comes from the name of the K'ómoks First Nation who inhabited the area on Vancouver Island in British Columbia.

1925

I'm an art teacher :-)

Georgia O'Keefe, Petunia No. 2, 1925

1944

Robert J. Griesbach,
USDA-ARS U.S. National Arboretum, in Flower Breeding and Genetics

1871 - Russian Mammoth Seeds; 2016 - Russian Mammoth Odds and Ends

 Who can resist the allure of a flower two stories high?!! 

I started looking around for Mammoth Russian odds and ends, and this page is where I put them.   

This is how I live the sitting down part of my life,  following tangents around the internet.  It's nice folks like me have outlets like blogs to share what we find! 

RUSSIAN 

         MAMMOTH SUNFLOWER.

The heads of this enormous variety grow to the size of 20 inches in diameter under ordinary cultivation; produces an immense amount of valuable green fodder, and about 50 bushels seed per acre. Seed white, the size of Dent corn grains—valuable for feeding poultry and horses or for oil. A seed head of mine, shown at the Mass. Hort. Society. attracted great attention on account of its large size. A field of this variety makes the best bee pasture known. A few stalks planted in dooryards will prevent fever by absorbing malaria. Extensively cultivated in Russia. Have selected a quantity of the largest heads for seed. A large package of extra seed,  sufficient to plant 15 square rods, sent post-paid, with directions, for 25 cts.

E. BATCHELLER.
Box 900, Boston. Mass

1871 - The Cultivator & Country Gentleman, Volume 36

This link to Kuriositas is worth the visit for the info and the remarkable photographs!!!

Multiple sites say Mammoth Russian seeds were sold until the 1970s.  They are sold all over now so I wonder what happened back then.

Lastly, you can find almost anything on YouTube!

This video shows you how to grow them.

This second video follows a patch over their growth and tries to convince you to grow them!

1890 - Parsnip Chervil to Pepper - Part 15 of Sturtevant's HISTORY OF GARDEN VEGETABLE

 (Continued from p. 48. Vol. XXIV., 1890.) 

https://archive.org/details/jstor-2451440

Remember, to see the footnotes to find the books he used, go to the link above.  

When I insert my two cents into Sturtevant's text I try to remember to do it in red type.

Parsnip Chervil. Chesrophyllum bulbosum L. 

 THE roots of this plant, appearing almost like a short carrot, but generally smaller, are eaten boiled; a sub-variety has the roots nearly round. 

The wild plant is described by Camerarius in 1588, and by Clusius  in 1601, and is also named by Bauhinan 1623.     

1856 - Revue horticole

As a cultivated plant it seems to have been first noted about 1855, when the root is described as seldom so large as a hazel nut, while in 1861 it had attained the size and shape of the French round carrot. 

 It appeared in American seed catalogues in 1884 or earlier, and was described by Burr for American gardens in 1863. 

It was known in England in 1726, but was not under esculent culture. 

 The Parsnip chervil, turnip-rooted chervil or tuberous-rooted chervil, is called

• in France, cerfeuil tubéreux, cerfeuil bulbeux 
• in Germany, korbelrube, kerbelrube 
• in Flanders and Holland, knoll- kervel 
• in Denmark, kjorvelroe 
• in Spain, perifollo bulboso 

Patience Dock. Rumex patientia L. 



  This species is less acid than the common sorrel, and is occasionally grown for the same purposes. De Candolle  thinks it the Rumex sativus of Pliny. 

The name monk's rhubarb, or rhabarbarum monachorum of Tragus, 1552, indicates its presence in the gardens of the monasteries.  It was called patientia by Parkinson in 1640, and is noted by Turner in 1538, as having in England the common name of Patience. 

Go here for nice Rumex page with
a comparison chart for species's seeds.

It is noted as cultivated and its use as a vegetable in nearly all the early botanies, and is recorded in American gardens in 1806.  There are no varieties described. 

Patience Dock or Herb Patience is called: 

• in France, oseille spinard, patience, parelle, epinard immortel, choux de Paris, doche, dogue; 
• in Germany, Englischer spinat, winter-spinat ; 
• in Flanders, blijvende spinazie ; 
• in Denmark, engelsk spinat ;
• in Italy, lapazio, rombice ; 
• in Spain, romaza, acedera espinaca, espianaca perpetua ; 
• in Portugal, labaca ; 
• in Norway, have-syre; 
• in the Mauritius, patience 

Find the peas :-)

Jan Davidsz. de Heem

Pea. Pisum sativum D.C.     

 The history of the garden pea is difficult to trace, as its separation from the field pea cannot be expected to have been noted in early and popular reference. The use of the seed as an esculent, however, dates from a very remote antiquity, as pease have been excavated from the ruins of ancient Troy, and have been recovered from tombs at Thebes.  

Its culture among the Romans is evident from the mentions by Columella, Pliny and Palladius.  There is every reason to believe from the paucity of description that peas were not then in their present esteem as a vegetable, and were considered inferior to other plants of the leguminous order. The first distinct mention of the garden pea that I find is by Ruellius in 1536, who says there are two kinds of peas, one the field pea and trailing ; the other a climbing pea, whose fresh pods with their peas were eaten. 

Green peas, however, were not a common vegetable at the close of the 17th century. The author of a life of Colbert, 1695, says : "It is frightful to see persons sensual enough to purchase green peas at the price of 50 crowns per litron.   This kind of pompous expendi- ture prevailed much at the French Court, as will be seen by a letter of Madame de Maintenon, dated May 10, 1696."

(50 crowns in 1695 had the same buying power as $2236.49 current dollars!)

This subject of peas continues to absorb all others,says she; "the anxiety to eat them, the pleasure of having eaten them and the desire to eat them again, are the three great matters which have been discussed by our princes for four days past. Some ladies, even after having supped at the Royal table, and well supped too, returning to their own homes, at the risk of suffering from indigestion, will again eat peas before going to bed. It is both a fashion and a madness." 

In England garden peas appear to have been rare in the early part of Elizabeth's reign, as Fuller observes they were seldom seen, except those which were brought from Holland, and "these", says he, "were dainties for ladies, they came so far and cost so dear."  These references may, however, refer to peas out of season, but in 1683, Worlidge  says the meaner sort " have been long acquainted with our English air and soil, but the sweet and delicate sorts of them have been introduced into our gardens only in this latter age." 

 I propose, however, to only trace out the antiquity of the various forms which include varieties, not the history of the species, nor the varieties themselves. The varieties noted are innumerable, and occur with white and green seed, with smooth and with wrinkled seed, with seed black spotted at the hilum, with large and small seed ; as well as with plants with large and small aspect ; on dwarf, trailing and tall plants, and those with edible pods. 

1711 - Jan Luyken

 I. WHITE AND GREEN PEAS. 

 Lyte, in his edition of Dodonseus, 1586, mentions the trailing pea, or what Vilmorin classifies as the half-dwarf, as having round seed, of color sometimes white, sometimes green. 

 II. SMOOTH SEEDED. 

 Dodonaeus, in his Frumentorum, 1566, describes this form under Pisum minus, a tall pea, called 

• in Germany erweyssen ; 
• in Brabant, erwiten ; 
• in France, pots ; 
• by the Greeks, ochron ; 

the pods containing eight to ten round peas of a yellow color at first, then green. 

This pea was called in England Middle Peason in 1591.  

Below is the Pisum Minus of Rembert Dodoens, mentioned above as Dodonseus.

III. WRINKLED SEED. 

 The first certain mention I find is by Tragus in 1552, under Phaseolus. These are also recorded in Belgian and German gardens by Dodonaeus in his Frumentorum, 1566, under Pisum majus, the dry seed angular, uneven, of a white color in some varieties, of a sordid color in others. 

He calls them roomsche erwiten, groote erwiten, stock erwiten, and the plant he says does not differ from his Pisum minus, and indeed he uses the same figure for the two. 

The Herbal

Pena and Lobel in 1570, describe the same pea as in Belgian and English gardens, under the name Pisum angulosum hortorum quadratum Plinii, but the seed of a ferruginous and reddish color, and Lobel  in 1591 figures the seed, using the name Pisum quadratum, and it seems to be the Great Peason, Garden Peason, or Branch Peason of Lyte in 1586, as he gives Dodonaeus' common names as synonyms. 

In 1686, Ray describes this class under the name of Rouncival, and refers to Gerarde's picture of Pisum majus, or Rowncivall Pease, in 1597, as being the same. 

This word Rouncival, in white and green varieties, was used by McMahon in America in 1806, and Rouncivals by Gardiner and Hepburn in 1818, and Thorburn in 1828. The first good description of the seed is, however, in 1708, when Lisle calls it honey-comb or pitted. 

Mr. Knight, a nurseryman of Bedfordshire, before 1726 did much for the improvement of the pea, and sent out several wrinkled varieties.  Up to this time the wrinkled peas do not seem to have been in general esteem. The Knight pea, the seed rough, uneven and shrivelled, the plant tall, was in American gardens in 1821, and quite a list of Knight's peas are under present cultivation. 

 IV. BLACK-EYED PEAS. 

These are mentioned as of an old sort by Townsend in 1726, and are grown now under the name of Black-eyed Marrowfat. 

 V. DWARF PEAS. 

These are mentioned by Tournefort in 1700, and are referred by him to 1665. 

I find no earlier distinct reference. 

 VI. HALF-DWARFS. 

 These are the ordinary trailing peas as mentioned by the earlier botanies, as for instance the Pisum minus of Camerarius, 1586, etc. 

 VII. TALL PEAS. 

 These are the forms described by the early botanies as requiring sticking, as the Pisum majus of Camerarius, 1586; the Pisum of Fuchsius, 1542;   Phasioli or faselen of Tragus, 1552, etc. 

 VIII. EDIBLE-PODDED OR SUGAR PEAS. 

 The pods and peas of the large climbing pea are recorded as eaten, as also the green pods of the trailing form, by Ruellius in 1536, and this manner of eating is recorded by later authors.  We now have two forms, those with straightish and those with contorted pods. 

The first of these is figured by Gerarde in 1597, is described by Ray in 1686, Tournefort in 1700, etc. 

 The second form is mentioned by Worlidge in 1683 as the Sugar pease with crooked pods, by Ray  as Sickle pease. 

In the Jardinier Français, 1651, Bonnefonds describes them as the Dutch pea, and adds that until lately they were very rare, and Roquefort says they were introduced to France by the French ambassador in Holland about 1600. 

In 1806, McMahon includes three kinds among American esculents. 

 These are mentioned by Tournefort in 1700, and are referred by him to 1665. 

I find no earlier distinct reference. 

About 1683, Meager names nine kinds in English culture; 

in 1765 Stevenson, thirty-four kinds; 

in 1783 Bryant names fourteen ; 

1806 McMahon has twenty-two varieties; 

Thorburn's Calendar, 1821, contains eleven sorts, and his seed catalogue of 1828 had twenty-four sorts ; 

in 1883 Vilmorin describes one hundred and forty-nine ; 

in the report of the New York Agricultural Experiment Station for 1884, ninety-three varieties are described in full. 

Peas and peason are named in America in 1535, 1540, 1562, etc., but we cannot be sure from the references whether peas or beans of the pea-shape were intended. 

In 1602, however, peas were sown by Gosnold in the Elizabeth Islands off the coast of Massachusetts, were grown from French seed by the Indians of the Ottawa river in 1613, were grown in excellent quality by the colonists of Massachusetts in 1629, and in 1779 were among the Indian foods destroyed by General Sullivan in western New York.  

The pea is called: 

• in France, pois ; 
• in Germany, erbse ; 
• in Flanders and Holland, erwt ; 
• in Denmark, haveoert ; 
• in Italy, pisello ; 
• in Spain, guisante ; 
• in Portugal, ervilha; 
• in Norway, ert ; 
• in Greece, pizelia, aukos ; 
• in Russia, gorock.
• in Bengali, matar, burra-mutur ; 
• in Ceylon, rutagoradia ; 
• in Cochin China, dau-tlon ; 
• in Egyptian, besilleh ; 
• in Hindustani, muttir, matar, dana, buttani; 
• in India, mutur 
• in Japan, wan, nora mame ; 
• in Sanscrit, harenso ; 
• in Tamil, puttanie ; 
• in Telinga, goondoo sani gheloo

 Peanut. Arachis hypogaea L. 

I can't resist!  Sorry!

This is rather a plant of field than garden culture, yet it is included by Vilmorin among his kitchen garden esculents. It seems to be of New World origin, as jars filled with the nuts have been found in the mummy pits of Peru and Pachacamac, as I have myself verified at the National Museum, and Bentham inclines to the same belief, as the other known species of the genus, five in number, are all Brazilian. 

Garcilasso de la Vega, who was a boy at the time of the conquest of Peru, speaks of this plant under the name of ynchic, called mani by the Spaniards. The first writer who notes it is Oviedo in his Cronica de las Indias, who says the Indians cultivate very much the fruit mani; a little later Monardes (1569) describes a plant which is probably this.      Before this the French colonists, sent in 1555 to the Brazilian coast, became acquainted with it under the name of mandobi, which Jean de Lery describes.

It was figured by Laet in 1625, and by Marcgrav in 1648 as the anchic of the Peruvians, the mani of the Spaniards. 

It was included among garden plants by McMahon in 1806, and Burr in 1863 describes three varieties, but Jefferson speaks of its culture in Virginia in 1781. 

Its culture was introduced to France in 1802, and it was described among pot-herbs by Noi- sette , 1829.  

The peanut, earth nut, ground nut, grass nut, pindar, or earth almond, is called 

• in France arachide, pistache de terre, souterraine, anchic, arachine , feve de terre, noisette de terre, pistache d'Amerique, pois de terre ; 
• in Germany, erdnuss, erdeichel ; 
• in Italy, cece di terra ; 
• in Spain, chufa, cocahueta, alfonsigo ; 
• in Portugal, amen-duinas
• in the Mauritius, pistache
• Birdwood gives a Sanscrit name boochanaka ; 
• Hindustani, moongphulli, booe-moong ; 
• Tamil, vayer, nelay-cordalay ; 
• Telinga, nela senaglu, veru-sanaga ; 
• in Sumatra, cachang-goring. 
• In Angola, mpinda or ginguba ; 
• in Egypt, foul sennar, sennar-bean. 
• In Tagalo, mani ; 
• in Burma, myae-bai. 

Pennyroyal. Mentha pulegium L. 

 The leaves of pennyroyal are sometimes used as a condiment. Mawe, in England, in 1778, calls it a fine aromatic, and it was among American pot-herbs in 1806. 

It was in high repute among the ancients, and had numerous virtues ascribed to it by both Dioscorides and Pliny, and from the frequent reference to it in Anglo-Saxon and Welsh works on medicine, we may infer that it was much esteemed in northern Europe. 
 It has now fallen into disuse. 

Pennyroyal, in old herbals puloil royal, a name derived from the Latin puleium regium, from its supposed efficacy in destroying fleas, is called 

• in France menthe pouliot 
• in Germany, polei; 
• in Holland, poley ; 
• in Italy, pulegio ; 
• in Greece, gluphone or vlehoni ; 
• by the Turks, filis cun ; 
• in Egypt, hobag. 

Peppermint

 Peppermint. Mentha piperita L.

 Peppermint is grown on a large scale for the sake of the oil which is obtained by distillation, and which finds large use for flavoring candies and cordials, but especially in medicine. There are large centres of its culture in the United States, Europe, and Asia, but we are now concerned with its appearance as a pot-herb, for which it is grown to a limited extent, the leaves used for seasoning. 

It is spoken of as if not a garden plant by Ray, in 1724, who describes two varieties, the broad and narrow leaved.   In 1778 it is included by Mawe among garden herbs; in 1806 noticed among American garden plants, and is now an escape from cultivation. 

I find no notice of the peppermint preceding 1700, when it is mentioned by Plukenet  and Tournefort, and is noted as a wild plant only. 


Peppermint is called 

• in France menthe poivree ; 
• in Germany, pfeffermunze ; 
• in Denmark, pebbermynte ;
• in the Mauritius, pepermenthe ;
• in India, beelluta or panee kula ; 
• in Egypt, lemmane or nana; 
• in Bengali and Hindustani, pudina, 
• in Hindustani, nana ; 
• in Japan, faki. 

Peppers. Capsicum annuum L. 

 

LOC: New Mexico,
Lee, Russell, 1903-1986, photographer; 

This plant is of American origin, and is first mentioned by Peter Martyr in an epistle dated September, 1493, wherein he says Columbus brought home " pepper more pungent than that from the Caucasus".

It is also mentioned as a condiment by Chanca, physician to the fleet of Columbus in his second voyage to the West Indies, in a letter written in 1494 to the chapter of Seville.  It had already existed in tropical and southern America under cultivation in numerous varieties. These have been described under many specific names by Fingerhuth  and other botanists, but those varieties at present under northern cultivation can all be referred to the annual species, although differing exceedingly in the form, color, and quality of their fruits. 

These varieties furnish a number of groups which are quite distinctly defined, and which seem in many cases to present specific characters, and these groups or types have existed unchanged now for several centuries, despite the different conditions to which they have been exposed. 

1905 bottle of pepper sauce (LOC)

 In the varieties under our present cultivation, the only ones which I propose to notice, we have distinct characters in the calyx of several of the groups ; and in the fruit being pendulous and erect, and it is worthy of note that the pendulous varieties have a pendulous bloom as well as fruit, and the erect varieties have erect bloom, and some heavy fruits are erect, while some light fruits are pendulous; and in the quality of the fruit, as for instance all the sweet peppers having a like calyx ; and in the color of the fruit. 

While again there may seem at first to be considerable variability in the fruits even on the same plant, yet a more careful examination shows that this variability is more apparent than real, and comes from a suppression or distortion of growth, all really being of a similar type. 

 The history of the appearance of each of these groups can best be seen by the synonymy, which is founded upon figures given with the descriptions, and which is intended to be con- servative rather than complete. 

 I. The calyx embracing the fruit.

 (a.) Fruit pendulous. 

 This form seems to have been the first introduced, and presents fruits of extreme pungency, and is undoubtedly that described as brought to Europe by Columbus. 

 It presents varieties with straight and recurved fruit ; and the fruit when ripe is often much contorted and wrinkled. 

Fuchs, L., New Kreüterbuch, (1543)

• Capsicum longum. D.C. ex., Fing., t, VI. 
• Siliquastrum tertium. Langer Indianischer pfeffer. Fuch., 1542, 733- 
• Siliquastrum minus. Fuch., 1. c, 732. 
• Indianischer pfeffer. Siliquastrum. Roszlin, 1550, 214. 
• Indianischer pfeffer. Trag., 1552, 928. 
• Piper indicum. Cam. epit, 1586, 347. 
• Capsicum oblongius Dodonaei. Lugd., 1587, 632. 
• Piper indicum minus recurvis siliquis. Hort. Eyst, 1613, 17 1 3. 
• Piper indicum maximum longum. Hort. Eyst, 161 3, 17 13. 
• Capsicum recurvis siliquis. Dod., 16 16, 716. 
• Piper Calecuticum, sive Capsicum oblongius. J. Bauh., 1650, II., 943. 
• Siliquastrum, Ind. pfeffer. Pancov., 1673, 11. 296. 
• Piper Capsicum. Chabr., 1677, 297. 
• Piment de Cayenne. Vilm., 1885, 151. 
• Long Red Cayenne. Ferry. 
• Mexican Indian, four varieties, one the exact variety of Fuchsius, 1542. 
• Siliquastrum majus. Fuch., 1542, 732. 
• Long Yellow Cayenne. Hend. 
• Capsicum longum luteum. Fing., t. VII.

 According to Sloane the following are additional synonyms as taken from non-botanical writers. 

• Poivre indic. cornu. Lery, 205. 
• Axi longum acre, Martyr. 
• Axi lungo. F. Colon, Vit., 74. 
• Axi, or West Indian Pepper. 
• Purchas, 1100, 1106. 
• White and red long pepper. Carder, ib., 1 1 go. 
• Pepper growing on trees in a picked length running out. Layfield, ib., 1 173. 
• Pepper growing in long pods. Smith's Obs., 54. 81 Sloane. Cat., 1696, 39. 154 
• The Red pepper like a child's coral two inches long. Ligon, 79. 
•  Quein-boucoup. Thevet, Cosm., 938. 

 (b.) Fruits erect. 

• Capsicum annuum acuminatum. Fing., t. II. 
• Piper ind. minimum erectum. Hort. Eyst, 1613, 17 13. 
• Piper ind. medium longum erectum. Hort. Eyst., 161 3, 1713. 
• Piper longum minus siliquis recurvis. Jonston, Dendrog., 1662, t. LVI. 
• Piment du Chili. Vilm., 1883,410. 
• Chili pepper. Vilm., 1885, 151. 
• Red Cluster. Vilm., Alb. de CI. 
• Yellow Chili. Hend. 

1887  

 II. Calyx pateriform, not covering the flattened base of the fruit. 
        (Hmm...another new word for me; pateriform - Having the shape of a shallow bowl.)

(a.) Fruit long, tapering, pendent. 

• Piper indicum sive siliquastrum. Pin., 1561, 12. 
• Capsicum actuarii. Lob. Obs., 1576, 172; ic, 1591, I., 316.  
• Capsicum majus. Lugd., 1587, 632. 
• Capsicum longioribus siliquis. Ger., 1597, 292.  
• Piper indicum. Matth. Op., 1598, 434.  
• Capsicum oblongioribus siliquis . Dod., 1616, 716. 
• Pepe d' India. Cast. Dur., 16 17, 344. Figures 13 and 14, counting in order. 
• Piso, de Ind., 1658, 226. 
• Guinea pepper or garden coral. 
• Pomet, 1 748, 125. 
• Piper indicum bicolor. Blackw. Herb., 1754, n. 129, f. II. 
• Piment rogue long. Vilm., 1883,409. 
• Long red capsicum or Guinea. Vilm., 1885, 150. 

1620 - Bessler, Basilius, Hortus Eystettensis

 (b.) Fruit short, rounding, pendent. 

• Siliquastrum quartum. Fuch., 1542, 734. 
• Siliquastrum cordatum. Cam. Epit, 1586, 348. Fig. 2 and 6. Piso, 1658, 225. 
• Piper cordatum. Jonston, Dend., 1662, t. LVI.  
• Capsicum cordiforme, Mil. Fing., t. IX. 
• Oxheart. Thorb. 
• New Oxheart. Thorb. 1890.

1620 - Bessler, Basilius, Hortus Eystettensis

III. Calyx funnel form, not embracing base of fruit.

 

(a.) Fruit pendent ; long. 

• Piper indicum medium. Hort. Eyst, 161 3, 1713.  
• Piper siliquis flavis. Hort. Eyst., 161 3, 17 13. 
• Piper indicum aureum latum. Hort. Eyst., 161 3, 17 13. Fig. in Hernandez. Nova Hisp., 165 1, 137. 
• Piper indicum longioribus siliquis rubi. Swert, 1654, t. 35, f. 3. 
• Piper vulgatissime. Jonston, 1662, t. LVI. 
• Piper oblongum recurvis siliquis. Jonston, 1662, t. LVI. 
• Capsicum fructu conico albicante, per maturitakem miniato, Dill., 1774, t. 60. 
• Piment Jaune long. Vilm., 1883, 409. 
• Long Yellow Capsicum. Vilm., 1885, 151. 

(b.) Fruit pendent ; round. 

•  Siliquastrum rotundum. Cam. Epit, 1586, 348. 
•  Piper rotundum majus surrectum. Jonston, 1662, t. LVI. (as figured.) Figure 5. Piso, 1658, 225. 
•  Cherry Red, of some seedsmen. 

Great article on peppers
Mother Earth News

(c.) Fruit erect ; round. 

•  Piper minimum siliquis rotundis. Hort. Eyst., 16 1 3, 1713. 
•  Capsicum cersasiforme. Fing., t. V. 
•  Piment cerise. Vilm., 1883,411. 
•  Cherry Pepper. Burr, 1863,621; Vilm., 1885, 152. 

According to Sloane, l.c., this is the axi rotundum of P. Martyr, the axi rotondo of F. Colon, the carive sive axi montense of Laet, the caribe of J. Acosta, etc. 

 

To the left: From Burpee, 2016 -McMahon's Bird Pepper 

A tangy hot pepper ... Producing tiny, shiny,
 round-red peppers, this variety was introduced
in 1813 by Bernard McMahon from seeds
 given to him by Thomas Jefferson...




IV. Calyx funnel form, as large as base, but the fruit more or less irregularly swollen ; not pointed ; pendent. 

•  Capsicum luteum. Lam. Fing., t. VIII. 
•  Prince of Wales, of some seedsmen (yellow). 
• (Perhaps) Capsicum latum Dodancei. Lugd., 1587, 632. 
•  Capsicum latis siliquis. Dod., 1616,717. 
•  Capsicum siliquis latiore and rotundiore. J. Bauh, 165 1, II.
• Piper capsicum siliqui latiori et rotundiore. Chabr., 1677, 297. 

 V. Calyx set in concavity of fruit. This character is perhaps produced only by the swollen condition of the fruit as produced by selection and culture. As, however, it appears constant in our seedsmen's varieties, it may answer our purpose here.

 (a.) Fruit very much flattened. 

•  Piper indicum rotundum maximum. Hort. Eyst, 16 13, 17 13. 
•  Solanum mordeus, etc., Bonnet Pepper. Pluk. Phyt, 1691, t. 227, p. 1. 
•  Capsicum tetragonum, Fing., t. 10. 
•  Piment tomato. Vilm., 1886, 413. 
•  Red Tomato capsicum or American bonnet. Vilm., 1885, 154. 

 (b.) Fruit, squarish, angular, very much swollen, large. 

 This class includes the Bell, Sweet Mountain, Monstrous, Spanish mammoth, of Vilmorin; the Giant Emperor, Golden Dawn, etc., of American seedsmen. 

The varieties of this class seem referable to 

• Capsicum annuum rugulosum, Fing., 
• C. grossum pomiforme, Fing., and 
• C. angulosum, Fing., 

but I have not as yet sufficiently studied them.

This class V. embraces the sweet peppers, and none other. A sweet kind is noted by Acosta  in 1604, and it is perhaps the rocot uchu of Peru, as mentioned by Garcilasso de la Vega. Sweet peppers are also referred to by Piso in 1648. 

Occasionally Capsicum baccatum L. is grown, but the species is too southern for general use in the north. 

Its synonymy follows : 

• Capsicum, Piper indicum brevioribus siliquis. Lob. Obs., 1576, 172; ic., 1591, I., 317. 
• Capsicum brasilianum. Lugd., 1587,633; Pancov., 1673, n. 297. 
• Capsicum minimis siliquis. Ger., 1597, 292 ; Dod., 16 16, 717. 
• Piper siliqua parva brasilianum. J. Bauh., 165 1, II., Fig. 8. Piso, de Ind., 1658,- 225. 
• Piperis capsici varietas, siliqua parva, etc. Chabr., 1677, 297.
• Capsicum baccatum L. Fing., t. IV. 
• Small Red Cayenne.  Briggs' Seed Cat, 1874. 

I do not desire it to be understood that the classification used here is other than for convenience.
It has no claims for scientific accuracy, as it is only based upon such garden varieties as are known to me, and not upon a complete study of the species of this genus. 
It will however suffice to show that no type of our modern varieties can be considered of recent origin, but that they are probably all derivatives from the ancient American culture. 

The pepper or capsicum is called: 

• in France piment, carive, corail des jardins, courats, poivre de Calicut, poivre d'Espagne, poivre de Guinee, poivre de Portugal, poivre d'Inde, poivre du Bresil, poivron ; 
• in Germany, pfeffer; 
• in Flanders and Holland, spaansche peper ; 
• in Italy, peperone ; 
• in Spain, pimiento ; 
• in Portugal, pimento, pimentas. 

1890