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1887 - Australian Spinage to Bean - Part 3 - Sturtevant's HISTORY OF GARDEN VEGETABLES

This section contains a long list of Native American names, by tribe, for beans, in addition to the names for various beans in cultures and countries around the world.
I am also beginning to notice that many, many greens come from India.
 (Continued from page 133.)
View original installment with footnotes at https://archive.org/details/jstor-2451090

Australian Spinage. Chenopodium auricomum Lind. 

A NATIVE of Australia, Darling River to Carpentaria and Arnheim's Land, a tall perennial herb furnishing a nutritious and palatable spinage.  

It does not appear in any way superior to the Garden Orach, except, perhaps, for warm climates.  (To which I thought, "Garden Orach, what's that!???".)
It is mentioned as under culture in England in 1867, but it has apparently not yet become common or general.


Orach is another of the Chenopodium genus, Atroplex hortensis. Here is a nice garden blog with photos....
Quinoa is another one I like. Lamb's Quarters is one I am familiar with as a potherb although I haven't tried it.
I have never heard of Australian Spinach or Garden Orach! Then again, I have never had a vegetable garden before so I haven't paid attention :-) Garden Orach sounds pretty good and it is very pretty if you look at some of the 21st century seed offerings.

Balm. Melissa officinalis L. This aromatic perennial, a native of the Mediterranean countries, has long been an inmate of gardens for the sake of its herbage, which finds use in seasonings and in the compounding of liqueurs and perfumes, as well as the domestic remedy known as balm tea.
The culture was common with the ancients, as Pliny directs it to be planted, and as a bee plant or otherwise it finds mention in the Greek and Latin poets and the prose writers. It is mentioned in France by Ruellius in 1536; in England by Gerarde, 1597, who gives a most excellent figure, and also by Lyte in 1586,and Ray in 1686. 
Mawe, in 1758, says great quantities are cultivated about London for supplying the markets. In the United States it is included among garden vegetables by McMahon in 1806. As an escape the plant is found in England, and sparingly in the Eastern United States. Bertero found it wild on the island of Juan Fernandez. But one variety is known in our gardens, although the plant is described as being quite variable in nature. This would indicate that cultivation had not produced great changes.
The only difference I have ever noted in the cultivated plant has been in regard to vigor. A variegated variety is recorded by Mawe in 1778 for the ornamental garden, and is yet to be found. 

It has been found since Sturtevant's day!

Blackwell, E., A curious herbal, vol. 1: t. 27 (1737)

The names which have been given in various languages are :

• English, bawme, Lyte, 1586, baulm, balm, Blackwell, 1750;
• Danish, hjertensfryd, Vil., 1883 ;
• French, melissa, Ruel., 1536, melisse, Dod., 1616, melisse citronnelle, Vil., 1883;
• German, Melissenkraut,
• Mutterkraut, Lyte, 1586, Citronem-Melisse, Vil., 1883;
• Greek, melissovotanon, melissvhorton, Sibth. ;
• Holland, consilie de greyn, melisse, Lyte, 1586, citroen-melisse , Vil., 1883;
• Italy, cedronella, herba rosa, Lyte, 1586, melissa, Dod., 1616, Vil., 1883 ;
• Spain, torongil, yerva eidrera, Lyte, 1586, torongil, citronella, Vil., 1883.

Basella. Basella sp. The Basella species are natives of tropical Asia, and the leaves have been employed as a food in India and China. They have furnished a spinage plant to European gardeners now for many years.

Here is another plant that sounds worth growing that I never knew about.

I am beginning to feel deprived.  

Isn't this a great engraving?? The leaves look "meaty".

Rheede tot Drakestein, H.A. van, Hortus Indicus Malabaricus, vol. 7: t. 24 (1686)

Basella alba L. This species is cultivated in Burmah for spinage, in the Philippines seemingly wild and eaten by the natives. It is also cultivated in the Mauritius, and in every part of India, where it occurs wild. 
It was introduced to Europe in 1688, and was grown in England in 1691, but these references can hardly apply to the vegetable garden. It is, however, recorded in, French gardens in 1824 and 1829. The vernacular names in Europe are: 

• English, White Malabar Nightshade ; 
• Flanders, Meier ; 
• France, Baselle blanche, Epinard blanc de Amerique, Epinard blanc de Malabar ; 
• Germany, Indischer gruner Spinat, Malabar Spinat ;
• Italy, Basella; 
• Spain, Basela.

In the Mauritius, gandolle blanc; 

in the Indian languages,

• Bengali, sufed-pooin ; 
• in Telinga, allu-batsalla ; 
• in Hindustani,
• poi; 
• in Burmah, gyen baing etc.

Basella cordifolia Lam. (B. lucida Lam.) This species is cultivated in all parts of India, and is the Calalue of Barbadoes. It was imported from China to France in 1 83<p, s an d i s now known under the name of Baselle de Chine a tres larges feuilles. Its greater expanse of leaves makes it more desirable as a spinage plant than the other species. The vernacular names in India are: 

• Bengali, pooinshak ; 
• Telinga, pedda-batsella ; 
• Hindustani, pooi.

Basella nigra Lam. This species is found in Cochin China and China, both wild and uncultivated, 7 and Livingston says the leaves are much esteemed when boiled. It is very likely but a variety of the other species. Basella rubra L.

Descourtilz, M.E., Flore médicale des Antilles -1829) 

This Indian species is cultivated as a spinage plant in many places. In 1638, according to the " Hortus Malabaricus," seed was sent from Ceylon to the botanic garden at Amsterdam, and Ray, in 1704, describes it as cultivated in gardens. No mention of it in kitchen gardens, however, occurs before the present century. 

It is mentioned in French works on gardening in 1824, 1826, and 1829," and in the Mauritius in 1827. Bretschneider has found mention of it as a cultivated vegetable in Chinese authors of the sixteenth century, 1640, and 1742. Kaempfer describes it as a Japanese plant, and Rumphius as of Amboina. The European names are : 

• Red Malabar Nightshade in English
• in France, Baselle rouge, Epinard rouge d'Amerique, Epinard rouge de Malabar ; 
• in Germany, Rother Malabar- spinat.

The extra European names I find are :

• in Japan, murasakki ;
• Mauritius, bredes gandolle ou d'Angole ;
• in India, poee sag;
• in Sanscrit, pootika ;
• in Bengali, racta-bun-pooi ;
• in Telinga, yerra-batsalla ;
• in Ceylon, rat-niwiti

Basil. Ocimum sp. Various kinds of basil have been grown in vegetable gardens since a remote period, for the sake of the aromatic foliage which serves as a seasoning. In 1778, Mawe names thirteen varieties, the broad-, narrow-, and fringed-leaved, the dark green, the large purple and the fringed purple, the tricolored, the curled- and the studded-leaved, the red- and the purple-flowered, the long-spiked and the short-spiked. 

At the present time Vilmorin describes ten kinds as serviceable for the kitchen garden. In 1612, " Le Jardinier Solitaire" devotes a section to directions for culture, and Quintyne, in 1693, grew basil among hot-bed plants. According to Miss Bird, the seeds are eaten in Japan. (Miss Bird's book is a good read if you are into that sort of travel...)

(Pardon this digression. The above book is a joy to look at. Unfortunately for me, Google translate can't handle even the translation of the title...sigh. On the bright side, I do not know if it is just by chance or there has been a change in the policy for scans, but a wonderful number of books have been showing up as the original scan with the color and texture of the paper intact!! The pastedowns and endpapers are often there, and, ta-da!, the binding!! You can often clearly see the watermark in the paper. Just look at the blind stamped binding on this book. )

Ocimum basilicum L. 

 This species is a very variable one, and furnishes a number of botanical varieties. It includes the large varieties of our gardens, in both the green- and purple-foliaged, the large-, medium-, and narrow-leaved. 

It is a native of tropical Asia, and is described for India by Drury, for Cochin China by Loureiro, for Amboinia by Rumphius, for Malabar by Rheede (see below), etc. 

It was probably known to the ancients, but the commentators are often in doubt as to the name. Fee  thinks it the okimon of Hippocrates, Theophrastus, and Dioscorides, the ocimum hortense of Columella and Varro.    

It reached England on or before 1548, according to Mcintosh; certain it is, it is not mentioned by Turner in his " Libellus," 1538, and is well known to Lyte in 1586.

Rheede tot Drakestein, H.A. van, Hortus Indicus Malabaricus, (1690)

It occurs in all the American works on gardening, commencing with 1806. 

In our synonymy we can include all the varieties named by Vilmorin as in present culture, and all those mentioned in the vernacular by less recent writers. A careful examination seems to justify the following attempts :

• Ocimum mediocre. Fuch., 1542, 548.
• Basilica minor. Trag., 1552, 30.
• O.parvum. Matth., 1558, 268.
• O. medium vulgatius. Adv., 1570, 215 ; Lob. Obs., 1576, 268.
• O. secundum. Cam., Epit, 1586, 309.
• O. medium. Lugd., 1578, 680.
• O. medium citratum. Ger., 1597, 547.
• Basilicum medium. Hort. Eyst, 161 3, ^Est. ord., 7, fol. 9.
• O. vulgaris. Bauh., Pin., 1623, 226.
• O. basilicum I,. Sp., 2d ed., 833.
• Basilic grand vert and grand violet. Vil., 1883, 31.
• Sweet Basil and Purple Sweet Basil.

II.

• Ocimum magnum. Fuch., 1542, 549.
• Basilica major. Trag., 1552, 31.
• O. max. caryophyllatum. Lob. Obs., 1576, 268; ic, 1591, i. 5°3-
• Ocimum. Cam., Epit, 1586, 308.
• O. maximum. Lugd., 1587, 679.
• O. garyophyllatum majus. Bauh., Phytopin., 1596, 425.
• ? O. basilicum, var. b. Lin., Sp., 2d ed., 833.
• Basilic afeuilles large. De C, Fl. Fran., 1815, iii. 570.

III.

• Ocimum anisatum. Hort. Eyst., 161 3, ^Est. ord., 14, fol. 2.
• Basilic anise. Vil., 1883, 32.

IV.

• Ocimum latifolium crispum. Matth., 1598,408.
• O. crispum viride. Hort. Eyst, 161 3, ^Est. ord., 7, fol. 10.
• O. foliis fimbriatis viridis. Bauh., Pin., 1623, 225.
• O. Sancto mauritanum. J. Bauh., 165 1, iii. 249.;
• O. Basilicum L., v&r.f, Benth.
• Basilic frise. Vil., 1883, 32.

Bessler, Basilius, Hortus Eystettensis

V.

• Ocimum latifolium magnum. Hort. Eyst, 161 3, Est. ord., 7, fol. 10.
• O. viridefoliis bullatis. Bauh., Pin., 1623, 225.
• O. basilicum, var. d. Lin., Sp., 2d ed., 833.
• O. bullatum. Lam. ex De C, Fl. Fran., m, 570.
• Basilic afeuilles de laitue. Vil., 1883.

In the European languages Basil or Sweet Basil is called, 

• in Denmark, basilikum; 
• in Flanders, basilik ; 
• in France, basilic grand, B. aux sauces, B. des cuisiniers, B. romain, her be royale ;
• in Germany, Basilicum, Basilien, Basilgram ; 
• in Italy, basilico ;
• in Portugal, manjericao ; 
• in Russia, wasilik ; 
• in Spain, albaca, albahaca

Outside of Europe it is called, 

• in Arabic, ryhan riban, habak ;
• in Sanscrit, manjirika ;
• in Bengali, barbooitulsee ; 
• in Hindustani, kala-tulsee, pashana cheddu; (For what it is worth, Kala-tulsee Google translates to "Tomorrow Basil".)
• in Tamil, tirnoot-patchie ; 
• in Telinga, vepoodipatsa ;
• in Persia, deban-shab, nazbro, ungooshtkuneezuckan, etc.

Jacquin, N.J. von, Icones plantarum rariorum(1786-1793)

Ocimum gratissimum L. 

This species is recorded as indigenous from India, the South Sea islands, and Brazil.  

According to Loureiro, it occurs in the kitchen gardens of Cochin China. 

It was cultivated in England in 1752 by Mr. Miller.  


Forskal gives as the Arabic name, hobokbok. 

In French gardens this plant is called basilic en arbre. Vilmorin thinks, however, that the French form may be the 0. suave Willd., but of this he is not certain.






Ocimum minimum L. 

Bonelli, Giorgio, Hortus Romanus juxta Systema Tournefortianum(1783-1816)

This smaller species is a native of India, but is recorded from Cochin China and from Chili. From its compact form it is much grown in gardens, and has furnished several varieties. It is not mentioned in Turner's " Libellus," 1538, and hence had probably not reached England at this time. 

It has been known in American gardens from the commencement of the present century (1800s) , and probably earlier. 

 The synonymy can be established as below : 

• Ocimum exiguum. Fuch., 1542, 547.
• 0. minimum amaraci figura caryophyllata. Adv., 1570, 215;
• Lob. Obs., 1576, 269.
• 0. caryophyllatus. Lugd., 1587, 681.
• 0. minus garyophyllatum. Ger., 1597, 547.
• 0. garyophyllatum. Matth., 1598,407.
• Basilico minore. Cast. Durante, 1617, 64.
• 0. minimum. Bauh., Pin., 1623, 226; J. Bauh., 165 1, iii. 247;
• Ray, 1686, i. 541.
• 0. mimimum. L., Sp., 833.
• Bush basil. Lyte, 1586; Ger., 1597; Ray, 1686; Burr, 1863.
• Basilic fin, vert and violet. Vilm., 1883, 33.

II.

• Ocimum min. caryophyllatum. Hort. Eyst, 161 3, ^Est. ord., 7, fol. IO.
• Basilic fin vert compact. Vil., Alb. de Clich., n. 43077.
• Compact Bush-basil. Vil., Veg. Gard., 1885, 19.

Bush basil 

• is called in India Sqfed toolsee;
• in Italy, Basilico gentile, Basilico garosonato;
• in France, Basilic fin ; 
• in Spain, Albaca menuda, A.fina

We certainly cannot find in basil an illustration of great modifications which have been produced by cultivation, nor can we suspect that there are any well-marked varieties of modern origination. Bean. Phaseolis vulgaris L. 

When the bean was first known it was an American plant, and had a culture extending over nearly the whole of the New World, as it finds mention by nearly all the early voyagers and explorers, and while the records were not kept sufficiently accurate to justify identification in all cases with varieties now known, yet the mass of the testimony is such that we cannot but believe that beans as at present grown were included. 

A partial list of such testimony I have given heretofore, and hence it need not be repeated. The marvelous number of varieties known are indication of antiquity of culture, and when kept from crossing these varieties come true and perpetuate indefinitely characters which appear in the seed. 

From seed apparently on type, however, through atavism, other varieties may appear, and to one unfamiliar with the types might be considered as sports, and as proof of the variable nature of the plant. Commentators have quite generally considered this species as among the plants cultivated by the ancients, and De Candolle, who has given the subject much thought, thinks the best argument is in the use of the modern names derived from the Greek fasiolos and the Roman faseolus and phasiolus. In 1542, Fuchsius used the German word Faselen for the bean; in 1550, Roszlin used the same word for the pea, as did also Tragus in 1552. Fuchsius gives also an alternative named welsch Bonen, and Roszlin welsch Bonen and welsch Phaselen for the bean, and the same word, welsch Bonen, for the bean is given by Tragus, 1552, and Kyber,? 1553. This epithet, welsch or foreign, would seem to apply to a kind not heretofore known. Albertus Magnus, who lived in the thirteenth century, used the word faselus as denoting a specific plant, as "faba et faseolus et pisa et alia genera leguminis," " cicer, faba, faseolus." He also says, " Et sunt faseoli multorum colorum, sed quodlibet granorum habef maculam nigram in loco cotyledonis." (And there are faseoli of many colors, but each one of a black stain in the place where the grain has the cotyledon.) Now the Dolichos unguiculatus L. is a plant which furnishes beans with a black eye, as grown by me, and appears the same with many varieties of the "cow pea" of the Southern States, and is stated by Vilmorin to be grown in Italy in many varieties.

1770 - Jacquin, N.J. von, Hortus botanicus 

I have before me, as I write, two hundred and nineteen bottles of beans, each with a distinct name (many, however, synonymes), and not one of these beans has a black eye. I have before me the seed of Dolichos unguiculatus and twelve named varieties of the cow pea, and all have a circle of black about the white eye, also one variety of cow pea all black, with a white eye, and one red speckled form without the black.

It seems, therefore, reasonable to conclude that the faselus of Albertus Magnus was a Dolichos. In the list of vegetables Charlemagne ordained to be planted on his estates occurs the word fasiolum, without explanation. Passing now to the Roman writers, Columella speaks of the "longa fasellus," an epithet which well applies to the pods of the Dolichos ; he gives directions for field culture and not for garden culture, recommending the seeding to be four modii per jugerum, and he recommends planting in October. (Jugerum = 0.625 acres; modius = 1.92 gallons)

Pliny says the pods are eaten with the seed, and the planting is in October and November. Palladius recommends the planting of faselus in September and October, in a fertile and well-tilled soil, four modii per jugerum. Virgil's s epithet, " vilemque phaselum," also indicates field culture, as to be cheap implies abundance. Among the Greek writers, Aetius, in the fourth century, says the Dolichos and the phaseolus of the ancients were now called by all lobos, and by some melax (smilax ?) kepea. 
This word lobos of Aetius is recognizable in the Arabic lonbia applied to Dolichos lubia Forsk., a bean with low stalks, the seed ovoid, white, with a black point at the eye. 
Galen says the lobos was called by some phasiolos. From these and other clues to be gleaned here and there from the Greek authors, I am disposed to think that the low bean of the ancients was a Dolichos, and that the word phaselus referred to this bean whenever used throughout the middle ages in speaking of a field crop. The Roman references to phaseolus all refer to a low-growing bean fitted for field culture, and so used. There is no clear indication to be found of garden culture. Aetius seems the first among the Greeks to refer to a garden sort, for he says the lobos are the only kind in which the pod is eaten with the bean, and Galen, De Aliment, c. xxviii. he says this lobos is called by some melax kepea (smilax hortensis), the dolichos and phaseolus of his predecessors. Galen's use of the word lobos, or the pod plant, would hence imply garden culture in Greece in the second century. The word loubion is applied by the modern Greeks to the Phaseolus vulgaris, as is also the word loba in Hindustani. The word lubia is applied by the Berbers, and in Spain the form alubia to the Phaseolus vulgaris. The words fagiuolo in Italian, phaseole in French, are used for the P. vulgaris. 

It is so easy for a name used in a specific sense to remain while the forms change, as is illustrated by the word squash in America, that we may interpret these names to refer to the common form of their time, to a Dolichos (even now in some of its varieties called a bean) in ancient times and to a Phasiolus now. Theophrastus says the dolichos is a climber, and bears seeds, and is not a desirable vegetable. 
I find no other mention of a climber in the ancient authors. The word dolichos seems to be used in a generic sense, Theophrastus says the his dolichos, the intensive s being used after the o ; but the dolichos of Galen is the faselus of the Latins, for he says that some friends of his had seen the dolichos (a name not then introduced at Rome) growing in fields about Caria, in Italy. We may hence be reasonably certain that the pole beans which were so common in the sixteenth century were not then cultivated. The English name kidney beans is derived evidently from the shape of the seed. 
Turner, 1551, is the first use of this name I note ; but they were not generally grown in England until quite recent times. 

Parkinson, in 1629, speaks of them as oftener on rich men's tables, and Worlidge, in 1683, says that within the memory of man they were a great rarity, although now a com- mon delicate food. 

 c.1580-1590 - Annibale Carracci's The Bean Eater

The French word haricot, applied to this plant, occurs in Quintyne, 1693, who calls them aricos in one place, and haricauts in another. The word does not occur in "Le Jardinier Solitaire," 1612, and Champlain, in 1605, uses the term febues du Bresil, indicating he knew no vernacular name of closer application. De Candolle says the word araco is Italian, and was originally used for Lathyrus ochrus. It is apparently thus used by Oribasius and Galen. The two species of Linnaeus, Phaseolus vulgaris and P. nana, correspond to the popular grouping into pole and dwarf beans. But there is this to be remarked, that Linnaeus synonymes for P. nana apply to a Dolichos, and not to a Phaseolus, for the descriptions of Phaseolus vulgaris italicus humilis s. minor, albus cum. orbita nigricante of Bauhin's history answer well to the cow pea, as also does C. Bauhin's Smilax silique sursum rigente s. Phaseolus parvus italicus, and do not apply to the bush bean.  (so there!)

The figures given by Camerarius in 1586, by Matthiolus, 1598, and by Bauhin, 1651, are all cow peas, although the names given are those used for the true bean, thus indicating the same confusion between the species and the names which kept pace with the introduction of new varieties of the bean from America, for Pena and Lobel, in 1570, say that many sorts of fabas Pheseolosve were received from sailors coming from the New World.  (See below)

(Perhaps learning Latin would be a good winter project...)

Phaseolus nana L. The first figure I find of the bush bean is by Fuchsius, in 1542, and his drawing resembles very closely varieties that may be found to-day, — not the true bush, but slightly twining. 
In 1550, Roszlin figures a bush bean, as does Matthiolus in 1558, Pinaeus? in 1561, and Dalechamp in 1587. Matthiolus says the species is common in Italy, in gardens, and oftentimes in fields, the seed of various colors, as white, red, citron, and spotted. Dalechamp figures the white bean. 

Giovanna Garzoni, Plate with White Beans, ca. 1650-1662

The dwarf bean is not mentioned by Dodonaeus in 1566 nor in 1616. A list of varieties cultivated in Jamaica is given, in 1837, by Macfadyen, which includes the one-colored black, yellow, red, etc.; the streaked, in which the seeds are marked with broad, linear curved spots; the variegated, the seeds marked with rubiginose, leaden, etc., more or less rounded spots ; and the saponaceous, with the back of the seeds white, the sides and concavity marked with spots so as to resemble a common soap-ball. Gerarde, 1597, does not mention this bean in England, but it is mentioned by Miller, in 1724, in varieties which can be identified with those grown at the present time, five in all. 
In 1765, Stevenson names seven varieties; in 1778, Mawe names eleven. In 1883, Vilmorin 5 describes sixty-nine varieties and names others. Phaseolus vulgaris L. Pole beans are figured by Tragus in 1552, who speaks of them as having lately come into Germany from Italy, and he calls them welsch or foreign, and he enumerates the various colors, as red, purplish white, variegated, white, black, and yellowish. Dodonseus in 1566 and 16 16 figures the pole bean, as does Lobel in 1576 and 1591, Clusius in 1601, and Castor Durante 10 in 1617. In 1597, Gerarde" figures four varieties in England, the white, black, red, and yellow, and Barnaby Googe (see below) speaks of French beans in 1572, indicating by the name the source from which they came. In 1683, Worlidge names two sorts as grown in English gardens, and the same varieties are given by Mortimer in 1708. In France, in 1829, nineteen sorts are enumerated by Noisette, and in 1883, Vilmorin describes thirty-eight varieties and names others. 

This is a later edition...

The bean is called: 

• in England kidney bean, Turner, 1551, Vilm., 1883; French bean, Vil., 1883; sperage bean, Ger., 1597, Googe, 1572 ; faselles, long peas on, garden smilax, Romane beans, Lyte, 1586; 
• in Denmark, havebonnen, Vilm., 1883; 
• in Flanders, boon, Vilm., 1883; 
• in France, febues, Cartier, ie, phasiolis, Pin., 1561, haricot, Quint, 1693, Vilm., 1883, phaseole, Vilm., 1883;
• in Germany, welsch Bonen, Fuch., 1542, Bohne, Vilm., 1883; 
• in Greece, fasoulia, De C, 1883;
• in Holland, boon, Vilm., 1883; 
• in Italy, fagiuolo, Pin., 1561, Vilm., 1883;
• in Spain (in Castile), arziejas luengas, (in Aragon) judias, Oviedo, 1546, faxones fexoes, frejoles, Navarette, about 1500,/araolos, Cam., 1586, habichuela,judia,frijol, Vilm., 1883 ;
• in Sweden, Turkiska boner, Tengborg, 1764.
• In India, in Hindustani, bakla,loba ;
• in Ceylon, dambala, Birdwood ;
• in Cochin China, dau tlang, tau, Lour.

In America, 

• the Northern Algonquins, tuppuhquam-ash, — i.e., twiners, Elliott ;
• in Carib, calaouana, Breton's Diet. ;
• in Chahta, tobi, Gray;
• in Chippeway, miskodissimin, — i.e., red-dyed seed, Gray ;
• in Dakota, onmnicha, Gray ;
• in Delaware, malachxit, Zeisberger ;
• in Huron, ogaressa, Sagard ;
• in Kennebec Abnaki, a 'teba 'kive, Rasle ;
• in Mohawk, osaheta, Gray ;
• Mojave, se-van, Whipple ;
• in the Narragansett, monasquisset (singular), Cotton, manusqussed-ash (plural), R. Williams;
• in Onondaga, onsahita and hosahita, Shea ;
• in Pequod, mushquissedes, Stiles ;
• in Peru, purutu, de Vega ;
• on the St. Lawrence, sake, Cartier ;
• the Shawanoes of Ohio, m'skochi-tha, Gray;
• the Cheyenne, monisk or monehka, Hayden ;
• in Virgina, okindjier, Haricot, peccatoas, peketawes, Strachey ;
• in Yuma, white beans, marique, Whipple. 

(This Mother Earth News article, Seed Varieties for Your Native American Garden, is worth a look.
It has a list of seed companies where you can get these heirloom seeds.)

Also, go to Native Seeds for great photos and to shop.

These Indian names mostly taken from Gray and Trumbull, Am. Jour, of Sc, August, 1883.  In Mexican, etl of the Aztecs; when boiled in the green pod exotl, Bancroft. It should not be overlooked that this bean has been found in the ancient Peruvian tombs at Ancon ; that Verarzanus, an Italian, in 1524, previous to the recorded introduction of the bean to Italy, in describing those met with on the New England coast, says, " differing in colour and taste fro' ours, of good and pleasant taste ;" and Harriot, in 1586, when kidney beans were scarcely in general culture in England, notes in Virginia that the beans are different from those of England in that they are " flatter, of more divers colours and some pied. The leaf also of the stem is much different."


 I'm throwing in this bean.  It is another of the bean seed sites I found as I poked around .

(Phaseolus acutifolius) 

80 days. Tan and blue-grey spotted beans, unique flavor in traditional Southwestern dishes. Tepary beans were a premier crop in the native cultures of the Sonoran desert and surrounding regions. They are very drought- and heat-tolerant, and in much of the country they may be grown without irrigation. They are of a thin-stemmed sprawling bush to half-runner habit. The seeds are smaller than common beans, produced in staggering profusion in small pods yielding several seeds per pod.

...to be continued...

HISTORY OF GARDEN VEGETABLES.


BY E. LEWIS STURTEVANT, A.M., M.D.

1887 - Aracacha to Asparagus Bean - Part 2 - Sturtevant's HISTORY OF GARDEN VEGETABLES.

(Continued from page 59.) 

Find the original installment with its footnotes at https://books.google.com/books?id=I7NLAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA125
Aracacha. Aracacha esculenta De C. 

THIS South American plant is yet included among garden vegetables by Vilmorin. 
It was introduced to notice in Europe in 1829 and again in 1846, but trials in England, 
France, and Switzerland were unsuccessful in obtaining eatable roots.

Yikes!




It was grown near New York in 1825, and at Baltimore in 1828 or 1829, but was found to be worthless.   Lately introduced to India, it is now fairly established there, and Mr. Morris considers it a most valuable plant-food, becoming more palatable and desirable the longer it is used. 

It is generally cultivated  in Venezuela, New Granada, and Ecuador, and in the temperate regions of these countries it is preferred to the potato. The first account which reached 
Europe concerning this plant was published in the "Annals of Botany," vol. i., about 1805. It was, however, mentioned in a few words by Alcedo in his " Diccionario Geographico de las Indias Occidentales  America," 1789.

(Let me put in my findings here as well.  I looked it up of course as I had never heard the name...it is called the Peruvian Carrot.  Several places mention it is good for distilling! A more thorough page is here.  Briefly, though, -

ARRACACHA ESCULENTA. 26204. From H. F. Schultz, Panama.

The Arracacha does not like a hot climate, but as the root needs about nine or ten months for full development, thet emperature must be rather equable all this time - say 60 to 68º.  The root contains a large amount of starch and a sweet, yellowish sap from which a fermented liquor is sometimes prepared. But generally the root is boiled and eaten like potatoes, being superior to the best,variety of the latter. (Ernst.)

The synonymy has been given as below : 

Aracacha xanthoriza. Banc. Koen. Ann., i. 400. 
Conium aracacha. Hook, Exot. Fl. Bot, 152. 
Aracacha esculenta. De C, Prod., iv. 244. 

Artichoke. Cynara scolymus Lin. 

The artichoke, Cynara scolymus L., is supposed by authors to have originated from the cardoon, Cynara cardunculus L., and 
the cardoon is indigenous at Madeira, the Canaries, Morocco, the Iberian Peninsula, the south of France, Italy, Greece, and the 
islands of the Mediterranean. It has become naturalized on a vast scale in Buenos Ayres and Chili. 

 It is now grown on a large scale in France and other portions of Europe for the flower-heads, the scales and buttons of which make a very palatable vegetable, and in America in private gardens. 

The number of varieties of artichoke is extremely large, as through the cross-fertilization of the flowers the plants do not come true from seed, and hence desirable selections are propagated by dividing the stools, or from suckers. 

Cynara cardunculus L

Vilmorin  describes thirteen varieties as sufficiently prominent for notice. 

Whether the artichoke was cultivated by the ancients is in dispute among commentators, and Targioni-Tozzetti,  a most competent authority, says it was only known to the Romans in the shape of the cardoon, and that the first record of the artichoke cultivated for the sake of the receptacle of the flowers was at Naples in the beginning or the middle of the fifteenth century ; 
it was thence carried to Florence in 1466, and at Vienna, Ermolao Barbara, who died as late as 1493, only knew of a single plant grown as a novelty in a private (Venetian) garden, although it soon after became a staple article of food over a great part of the peninsula. 

It seems quite certain that no descriptions I can find 
in Dioscorides and Theophrastus among the Greeks, nor in Columella, Palladius, and Pliny among the Romans, but that can, with better grace, be referred to the cardoon than to the artichoke. 
To the writers of the sixteenth century the artichoke and its uses were well known. " Le Jardinier Solitaire," an anonymous work published in 161 2, recommends three varieties for the garden. 

The most prominent distinction between the plants, as grown in the garden, is the presence or absence of spines. Although J. Bauhin,  in 1651, says that seed from the same plant may produce both sorts, and I have verified the observation, yet I cannot but believe that this comes from the cross-fertilization between the kinds, and that this absence or presence of spines is a true distinction. 

Tragus describes both forms in 1552, as do the majority of succeeding writers. 

The form of the heads form a second division, the conical-headed and the globe. 

I. The Conical-headed. 

Of the varieties sufficiently described by Vilmorin, four belong to this class, and they are all spiny. This form seems to constitute the French artichoke of English writers. 

The following synonymy seems justifiable : 
Vilmorin-Andrieux et cie.Les Plantes Potageres.


Cinara sylvestris. Ger., 1597, 291, fig. 


Scolymus. Trag., 1552, 866, cum ic. 


Carduus, vulgo Carciofi. I. Matth., 1558, 322. 


Carduus aculeatus. Cam. Epit, 1586, 438, cum ic; Matth., ed. of 1598, 496, cum ic. 


Thistle, or Prickly Artichoke. Lyte's Dod., 1586, 603. 


Carduus sive Scolymus sativus, spinosus. J. Bauhin, 165 1, iii. 48, cum ic. 


Artichokes, Violet. Quintyne, 1693, 187; 1704, 178. 


Conical-headed Green French. Mawe, 1778. 

https://archive.org/stream/gardenersdictio03millgoog#page/n131/mode/2up
French Artichoke. Mill. Diet., 1807; Am. Gard. Books, 1806, 819, 1828, 1832, etc. 

"Philip Miller’s Gardener's Dictionary was one of the most popular gardening books of the 18th century. Miller was an expert botanist and gardener, and the book was published in many different forms and editions: the first edition appeared in 1724, and the last edition in 1807. A contemporary of White’s wrote in 1753 that it was: "the best of all, and that when one has it, no book is afterwards required." 

Vert de Provence. Vilm., 1883, 16. 


De Roscoff. Vilm., 1. c. 


De Saint Laud oblong. Vilm., 1. c. 


Sucre de Genes. Vilm., 1. c. Etc. 


 J. Bauhin, Hist., 1651, iii. 48. 



II. The Globular-headed. 

To this form belong two of Vilmorin's varieties, and various other varieties as described by 
other parties. 

The synonymy which seems to apply is : 

Scolymus. Fuch., 1542, 792, cum ic. 
Cardui alterum genus. Tragus, 1552, 866. 
Carduus, vulgo Cariciofi. II. Matth., 1558, 322. 
Carduus non aculeatus. Cam. Epit, 1586, 437, cum ic. ; Matth., 1598, 497, cum ic. 
Right Artichoke. Lyte's Dod., 1586,603. 
Cinara maxima ex Anglia delata. Lob. ic., 1591, ii. 3, 
Cinara maxima alba. Gerarde, 1597, 991, fig. 
Cinara maxima anglica. Gerarde, 1. c. 



Green or White. Quintyne, 1593, 187; 1704, 178. 
Red. Quintyne, 1. c. 
Globular-headed Red Dutch. Mawe, 1778. 
Globe Artichoke. Mill. Diet., 1807; Am. Gard. Books, 1806, 1819, 1828, etc. 
Gros vert de Laon. Vilm. 1883. 
Violet de Provence. Vilm., 1. c. Etc.




Valentini, M.B., Viridarium reformatorum, vol. 1: p. 437 (1719)
In growing five of Vilmorin's varieties from seed, variability was such that we had nearly as many varieties as plants, and among other sorts had one which in its head was precisely 
the Cinara major Boloniensis of the " Hortus Eystettensis," 1613 ; 
and another, which was the Cinara seu Artischoche vulgatiss of the same. 

The color of the heads also found mention in the early writers. 

In our first division, the French, the green is mentioned by 

Tragus in 1552, 
by Mawe in 1778, 
and by "Miller's Dictionary" in 1807;

the purple 

by Quintyne in 1693. 
(Photo: http://www.theseedcollection.com.au/Artichoke-Purple-Headed1)

In the Globe class the white is named 

by Gerarde in 1597, and 
by Quintyne in 1693 ; 

and the Red 

by Gerarde in 1597, 
by Quintyne in 1693, 
and by Mawe in 1778 ; 
and Parkinson, in 1629, names the red and the white. 

The so-called wild plants of the herbalists seem to offer like variations to those we have noted in the cultivated forms, but the difficulty of identification renders it inexpedient to state a fixed conclusion.   

The heads are certainly no larger now than they were two hundred and fifty years ago, for the "Hortus Eystettensis" figures one fifteen inches in diameter. The long period during 
which the larger part of the present varieties have been known seems to justify the belief that modern origination has not been frequent. 

"Le Jardinier Solitaire," 1612, describes early varieties, — le Blanc, le Rouge, and le Violet; Worlidge, in 1683, says there are several kinds, and he names the tender and the hardy 
sort. McMahan names the French and two varieties of the Globe in America in 1806; "L'Hort. Francais," 1824, names the Blanc, Rouge, Violet, and the Gros vert de Laon ; Petit, "Nouv. Diet, du Jard.," 1826, adds Sucre de Genes to the list; Noisette, in 1829, adds the Camus of Brittany. 

The name given by Ruellius  to the artichoke in France, in 1536, is articols, from the Italian articoclos. He says it comes from arcocum of the Ligurians, cocali signifying the cone of the 
pine. The Romans call it carchiophos, and the plant and the name came to France from Italy. 

The names I have seen assigned are in alphabetical order : 

Arabs, kharchiof, hirshuf raxos, harxos ;  
Berber, taga; 
Egypt, charsjuf;
Flanders, artisjok; 
France, carciophe, artichaut ; 
Germany, strobildorn, artischoke ; 
Hindustanee, kunjir ;
Holland, artisjok ;
India, kunjeer, ateechuk ;
Italy, carciofo, articiocca, archichiocco ;
Persia, kunjir ; 
Portugal, alcachofra ;
Spain, alcachofa, cardo de cornier.

Asparagus. 

Asparagus officinalis L. 

1697 - Still Life with Asparagus by Adriaen Coorte

The cultivated asparagus seems to have been unknown to the Greeks of the time of Theophrastus and Dioscorides, and the 
word asparagos seems to have been used for the wild plant of another species. 

The Romans of the time of Cato, about 200 B.C., knew it well, and Cato's directions for culture would answer fairly well for the gardeners of to-day, except that he recommends starting with the seed of the wild plant, and this seems good evidence that the wild and the cultivated forms were then of the same type as they are to-day. 

Columella, in the first century, recommends transplanting the young roots from a seed-bed, 
and devotes quite a space to their after-treatment, and he offers choice of cultivated seed or that from the wild plant, without indicating preference.   Pliny, who wrote also in the first century of our era, says that asparagus, of all the plants of the garden, receives the most praiseworthy care, and also praises the good quality of the kind that grows wild in the island of Nesidis, near the coast of Campania.    In his praise of gardens  he says, " Silvestres fecerat natura corrudas, ut quisque demeteret passim ; ecce altiles spectantur asparagi ; et Ravenna ternos libris rependit." (Nature has made the asparagus wild, so that any one may gather as found. Behold, the highly-manured asparagus may be seen at Ravenna weighing three pounds.) 

Asparagus albus L. (as Corduba tertia)  Clusius, C., Rariorum plantarum historia

This evidences the likeness remarked between the wild and the cultivated form, and 
the recognition of the change produced by. culture. Palladius, an author of the third century, rather praises the sweetness of the wild form found growing among the rocks, and recommends the transplanting to such places otherwise worthless for agriculture, but he also gives full directions for garden culture with as much care as did Cato. 

Gesner quotes Pomponius, who lived in the second century, as saying that there are two kinds, the garden and the wild asparagus, and the wild asparagus the more pleasant to eat. 

The word Asparagus, as used by the Romans, meant the cultivated form, the word Corruda the wild plant. 

The original meaning seems to have been a succulent shoot, for in this sense it was frequently used by the Greek writers. 

In the European languages we have the continuance of the word under various forms, as

 Sperage by Turner, 1538; 
Asparagus by Gerarde, 1597 and to date, as also Sparrowgrass. 
In Denmark, Asparges ; 
in France, Asperge or Esparge in 1586; 
in Germany, Epargen in 1586, Epargel in 1807, and Spar gel at the present time ; 
in Greece, Asparaggia; 
in Holland, Aspergie in 1807, Aspersie now; 
in Italy, Asparagus in 1586, and Sparagio at present; 
in Portugal, Espargo ; 
in Russia, Sparsa or Sparsch; 
in Spain, Asparrago and Esparrago ; and 
in Sweden, Sparis or Spargel 

In extra-European languages the following names appear : 

in Arabic, yeramya, marchoobeh ;
By the Moors, halion or helium, 
in India, marchooba, nagdoon, or asfuraj ';* 
Hindustanee, hilyoon, nagdoun ; 
in Persian, margeesh ; 
in Japan, kikak kosi ;
in the Mauritius, asperge

The expression of Parkinson, 1629, "a delectable sallet herbe," implies the consideration 
in which for many centuries it has been held. Its culture in Italy was, as we have seen, 
quite general in ancient times. We have no records of its first appearance in the various 
countries of Europe, but it is mentioned in England by Turner in 1538, and as under 
cultivation by Gerarde in 1597. 
In France it was well known in 1529. In America "Sparagus" is mentioned in Virginia in 
1648,and in Alabama in 1775, and in 1785 Cutter mentions asparagus as if it was then 
a well-known vegetable in Massachusetts. 

New Improvements of Planting and Gardening: Both Philosophical and Practical; Explaining the Motion of the Sapp and Generation of Plants  Richard Bradley 1718

The wild plant is indigenous to Europe ; as an escape from gardens it is often noted in 
America, not only in waste places on the coast, as Gray states, but also inland. 
There are no essential points of difference between the wild and cultivated forms ; 
such as are noted between the escapes and the garden plants are only such as come from protected culture and rich soil ; the figures in the ancient botanies do not indicate other 
variation than this, and the few varieties, so called, of our gardens have no especial 
importance, the differences being but in minor points, and but indicative of a careful selection and high culture, the ordinary variability of a variety furnishing plants which are 
propagated by division. 

The point I wish to make regarding this vegetable is this, that although under high cultivation now for over two thousand years, under diverse climates and treatment, yet it has remained constant to type. 

The directions given by the Roman writers to plant the seed of the wild plant might be followed to-day with our escapes without detriment. It has given no variety types that have been recorded from the time of Cato up to this present year of grace. Where, then, is this boasted power of man by which he is supposed to modify our wild plants into improved 
types? It probably does not exist. The types of our cultivated plants have been apparently taken from nature, as produced by the slow process of natural selection, and the influence of selection and diverse cultivations has been but to secure variation within the type limits, and such variations are usually of the character which may be described as expansion under culture, or its opposite ; as smoothness and regularity of form ; as enhanced quality.  (Huh?)

Asparagus Bean. Dolichos sesqiiipedalis L. 

This bean was described by Linnaeus  in 1763, and I find no record of an earlier notice. It reached England in 1781.  Linnaeus gives its habitat as America, and Jacquin received it from the West Indies.   Martens  considers it as a synonyme of Dolichos sinensis L.  

Loureiro's description of D. sinensis certainly applies well to the asparagus bean, and Loureiro  (pdf download) observes that he thinks the D. sesquipedalis of Linnaeus the same. He refers to Rumphius's "Amboina" 1. 9, c. 22, tab. 134, as representing his plant, and this work, published in 1750, antedates the description of Linnaeus.  

I think this is probably an East Indian plant, introduced to the West Indies, but I am unable from my notes to present the varieties and the forms which have been included under D. chinensis. 

Les plantes potagères. Description et culture
 des principaux légumes des climats empérés, 
Vilmorin-Andrieux & Cie à Paris en 1883.

The name of Asparagus bean comes from the use of the green pods as a vegetable, served as a string-bean, and a tender asparagus-like dish it is. The name at Naples of Fagiolo e maccarone conveys the same idea. The pods grow very long, oftentimes are two feet in length, and hence the name of Yard-long often used. 



The Asparagus or Yard-long bean is mentioned for American gardens in 1828,  and probably was introduced earlier. It is mentioned for French gardens under the name of Haricot asperge in 1829.    There are no varieties known to our seedsmen, but Vilmorin offers one, the Dolique de Cuba.  (illus. on right)


The names under which it is known are : 

in France, dolique asperge, haricot asperge ; 
in Germany, Americanische riesen-spargel Bohne ; 
in Holland, Indianische boon ; 
in Italy, fagiuolo sparagio, or fasoi longhi, fagiolo e maccarone ; 
at Cayenne, pots rubran ; 
at Barbadoes, Halifax pea;
 at Jamaica, asparagus bean;
 in Cochin China, dau dau and tau co.

(To be continued.) 




HISTORY OF GARDEN VEGETABLES.





BY E. LEWIS STURTEVANT, A.M., M.D.