Saturday, April 30, 2016

1887 - Beet to Burnet - Part 4 - Sturtevant's History of Garden Vegetables


While I am having a good time learning about new vegetables and plant history while I look up plants, people, things and places, I am feeling like I will never finish this series!  I'm still in "B"!!!!
     Read an original with footnotes at   https://archive.org/details/jstor-2451615


The Beet. Beta vulgaris, var. y L. 
Valentini, M.B., Viridarium reformatorum, vol. 1: (1719)


Bonelli, Giorgio, Hortus Romanus juxta Systema Tournefortianum, vol. 8: t. 47 (1783-1816)

THE beet is essentially a modern vegetable. 

It is not noted by either Aristotle or Theophrastus, and although the root of the chard is referred to by Dioscorides and Galen, yet the context indicates medicinal use.
Neither Columella, Pliny, nor Palladius mention its culture, but Apicius, in the third century, gives receipts for cooking the root of the Beta.


Athenaeus, in the second or third century, quotes Diphilus Siccineus as saying that the beet root was grateful to the taste and a better food than the cabbage. (Diphilus, who lived in the time of Lysimachus, first discovered the use of asparagus as a pot herb; and described for the first time the Persica coccumela or peaches.) 

It is not mentioned by Albertus Magnus in the thirteenth century, but the word bete occurs in English recipes for cooking in 1390. Barbarus, who died in 1493, speaks of the beet as having a single, long, straight, fleshy, sweet root, grateful when eaten, and Ruellius, in France, appropriates the same description in 1536, as does also Fuchsius in 1542; and the latter figures the root as described by Barbarus, having several branches and small fibres. In 1558, Matthiolus says the white and black chards are common in Italian gardens, but that in Germany they have a red beet with a swollen turnip-like root which is eaten. 
In 1570, Pena and Lobel speak of the same, but apparently as then rare, and in 1576, Lobel figures this beet, and this figure shows the first indication of an improved form, the root portion being swollen in excess over the portion by the collar. This beet may be considered the prototype of the long red varieties.

In 1586, Camerarius figures a shorter and thicker form, the prototype of our half-long blood beets. This same type is figured by Dalechampius in 1587, and also a new type, the Beta Romana, which is said in Lyte's " Dodoens," 1586 to be a recent acquisition. It may be considered as the prototype of our turnip or globular beets. One form we have omitted, — the flat-bottomed reds, — of which the Egyptian and the
Bassano of Vilmorin, as figured, may be taken as the type. The Bassano was to be found in all the markets of Italy in 1841, and the Egyptian was a new sort about Boston in 1869. I have ascertained nothing concerning the history of this type.


The first step in improvement gained from the chard beets was a smoothening of the root, and the contrasts are to be seen in the figures given by the herbalists, commencing with Fuchsius.   
(Leonhart Fuchs' The New Herbal -  below)





That this improvement was not continuous, but was contemporaneous with the less improved forms, may be seen by contrasting the figure of Beta nigra, given by Delachamp in 1587, and that given in Blackwell's "Herbal" in 1758, in which the roots are figured practically as of like form. Cultivation and selection have given greater size, greater thickness, smoothness of form, and other changes characterized by the term quality, but the type changes appeared at once as attention was directed to the value of the root. The first appearance of the improved beet is recorded in Germany about 1558 and in England about 1576, but the name used, Roman beet, implies introduction from Italy, where the half-long type was known in 1584 certainly. We may believe Ruellius's reference in 1536 to be for France. In 1631 it was in French gardens under the name of Beta rubra pastinaca and the culture of " betteraves" was described in "Le Jardinier Solitaire," 1612. Gerarde mentions the Romaine beete, but gives no figure, in 1597, and Bodaeus a Stapel apparently knew only this kind in Holland in 1644. In 1665, in England, only the Red Roman was named by Lovell, and the Red Beet was the only kind noticed by Townsend, a seedsman, in 1726, and a second sort, the common long red, is mentioned in addition by Mawe in 1778, and by Bryant in 1783. In America one kind only was in McMahon's catalogue of 1806, — the red beet, — but in 1828 four kinds are offered for sale by Thorburn. At present, Vilmorin describes seventeen varieties and names and partly de- scribes many others. The modern names of the beet are, — in France, betteraves potageres; in England, Garden Beet ; in Germany, Salat-rube, Beete, Rotke rube ; in Spain, re molacha Ziortelana. 


Benincasa. Benincasa hispida Cogn.
This cucurbit has been lately introduced into European gardens, but it has been grown in Eastern Asia for a long period. According to Bretschneider, it can be identified in a Chinese book of the fifth century, and is mentioned as cultivated in Chinese writings of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. 

In 1503-8, Ludovico di Varthema describes it in India under the name of comolanga.  
 
In 1859, Naudin says it is much esteemed in Southeastern Asia, and particularly in China, and that the size of its fruit, its excellent keeping qualities, the excellence of its flesh, and the ease of its culture should long since have brought it into our garden culture. 

He had seen two varieties, - one, the cylindrical, ten to sixteen inches long, and one specimen twenty-four inches long by eight to ten inches in diameter, from Algiers ; the other an ovoid fruit, shorter, yet large, from China. 

The long variety, the seed from France, I grew in 1884, the fruit, oblong cylindrical, resembling very closely a watermelon while unripe, but when ripe covered with a heavy glaucous bloom. This plant is recorded in herbariums as from the Philippine Islands, New Guinea, New Caledonia, Feegee Islands, Tahiti, New Holland, and Southern China ; as cultivated in Japan and in China.
In India the Benincasa is called the Pumpkin, and White Gourd or White Pumpkin in English, by the natives chal koomra panee koomra," or petha ; in Japan, ko or jungaoo; in France, Benin-casa and Courge a la cire. This species is the Cumbulam of Rheede, Hort. Mai., 8, p. 5, t. 3; 
the Camolenga of Rumphius, Amb., 5, 395, t. 143; 
the Cucurbita Pepo of Louriero, Cochinch., 593 ; Benincasa cerifera, Savi., etc. 


Blite. Blitum sp. These spinage plants are almost of too little consequence for mention, yet they are included by Vilmorin among garden vegetables.

  The blites are mentioned by Petit as grown by amateurs in France on account of the singularity of their fruit, which resemble strawberries, and also by De Candolle' in 1815. Hence the English name Strawberry blite, and the French, Epinards-fraises.   They are not mentioned by Noisette in 1829, nor do the seed occur in American seed lists. The plant that commentators interpret as the blite was cultivated by the ancients, but the descriptions appear to us to be too indefinite to enable identification. 


B. capitatum  (Wikipedia)
Blitum capitatum L. 
B This species, if Linnseus's synonymy can be trusted, was known to Bauhin in 1623, and by Ray in 1686. Miller's "Gardeners' Dictionary" refers it to J. Bauhin, who received the plant in 1651. The species was during this time little known outside of botanical gardens. The first
mention of its garden culture that I find is by De Candolle, in 1815, for France.


B. virgatum (Wikipedia)




Blitum virgatum L. This species was cultivated in France in 1815, and also at Geneva and in Germany, but probably only in a slight degree. It is also grown in the vegetable gardens at the Mauritius. Clusius grew it in 1595. Ray in 1686 had probably never seen it in England, for he copies Clusius. 



(If you can eat the colorful lumps, which I assume are flowers, this plant might have salad appeal just on aesthetic appeal.)





Borage. Borago officinalis L.
Fuchs, L., New Kreüterbuch, t. 77 (1543)


This plant, of such little consequence in our gardens, yet finds place in our seed lists. 

Native of the Mediterranean countries, it was early cultivated for the use of the leaves and flowers in cooling drinks, in salad, and for garnishing. 


It occurs with blue, red, and white flowers, and also with variegated leaves, but the ordinary form is the blue flowered. 










Noisette says it is more used in Italy than in France, but in France Quintyne, the royal gardener in 1690, made several sowings during the summer for the supplying of its tender leaves. Ainslie says it is cultivated by Europeans in India, and it was among the plants enumerated by Peter Martyr as planted at Isabella Island by the companions of Columbus. 
Zorn, J., Oskamp, D.L.,
Afbeeldingen der artseny-gewassen met derzelver
Nederduitsche en Latynsche beschryvingen, vol. 2: t. 174 (1796)

It occurs in American seed lists from 1806 to the present date, and on account of its general use in England in Elizabeth's time probably came over with English colonists. 
The various colored flowering sorts of Borage are found noted or figured by nearly all the ancient herbalists. Borage is called 
  • in France bonrrache officinale, b. batarde, faitsse bourrache, langue-de-boenf, and langue d'oie
  • in Germany, borretsch gnrkenkraut ;
  • in Flanders, beruagie ;
  • in Italy, boragine, borrana ; 
  • in Spain, borraja ; 
  • in Portugal, borrajem ; 
  • in Greece, vouraza, armpeta, and arnopetra ; 
  • in Egypt, lissan el tor., i.e., ox tongue, as also in Arabic.






BrocoliBrassica oleracea botrytis, cymosa, Broccoli De C.

The differences between the most highly improved varieties of the Brocoli and the Cauliflower are very slight ; in the less changed form they become great. 

Hence two races can be defined, the sprouting brocolis and the cauliflower brocolis. 

The growth of the Brocoli is far more prolonged than that of the cauliflower, and in the European countries it is grown as a hyemial plant, bearing its heads in the year following that in which it is sown. It is this circumstance that leads us to suspect that the Romans knew the plant and described it under the name of cyma. "Cyma a prima sectione prsestat proximo vere", "Ex omnibus brassicse generibus suavissima est cyma," says Pliny.  
He also uses the word cyma for the seedstalk which rises from the heading cabbage. These excerpts indicate the sprouting brocoli, and the same additional use of the word cyma then as exists in Italy now with the word brocoli, which, for a secondary meaning, is used for the tender shoots which at the close of winter are emitted by various kinds of cabbages and turnips preparing to flower. It is certainly very curious that the early botanists did not describe or figure the brocoli. The omission is only explainable under the supposition that it was confounded with the cauliflower, just as Linnaeus brought the cauliflower and the brocoli into one botanical variety. 

The first notice of the brocoli that I find is quoted from Miller's Dictionary, edition of 1724, in which he says it was a stranger in England until within these five years, and was called sprout colli-flower, or Italian Asparagus. 

In 1729, Switzer says there are then several kinds that he has had growing in his garden near London these two years, viz. : " that with small, whitish yellow flowers like the cauliflower; others like the common sprouts and flowers of a colewort ; a third with purple flowers; all of which come mixed together, none of them being as yet (at least that I know of) ever sav'd separate." 

In 1778, Mawe s names the Early Purple, Late Purple, White or Cauliflower-brocoli, and the Black. In 1806, McMahon mentions the Roman or purple, the Neapolitan or white, the green, and the black. In 1821, Thorburn names the Cape, the White, and the Purple, and in 1828, in his seed list, mentions the Early White, Early Purple, the Large Purple Cape, and the White Cape or Cauliflower-brocoli.
(In 1866, James Vick says in his catalog,

The first and third kind of Switzer, 1729, are doubtless the heading brocoli, while the second is as probably the sprouting form. These came from Italy, and as the seed came mixed, we may assume that variety distinctions had not as yet become recognized, and that hence all the types of the brocoli now grown have originated from Italy. It is interesting to note, however, that at the Cirencester Agricultural College, about i860, sorts of brocoli were produced, with other variables, from the seed of the wild cabbage. "The Sprouting or Asparagus Brocoli represents the first form exhibited by the new vegetable when it ceased to be the earliest cabbage, and was grown with an especial view to
Vilmorin
its shoots;
after this, by continued selection and successive improvements, varieties were obtained which produced a compact white head, and some of these varieties were still further improved into kinds which are sufficiently early to commence and complete their
entire growth in the course of the same year ; these last named kinds are now known by the name of Cauliflowers." — Vilmorin. The names of the Brocoli are, — 
  • France, chaux brocolis, Chou- fleur d'hiver; 
  • Germany, broccoli, brockoli, spargelkohl ; 
  • Flanders and Holland, brokelie ; 
  • Denmark, broccoli, asparages kaal ; 
  • Italy cavol broccolo ; 
  • Spain, brocidi ;
  • Arabic, sjami ;
  • India, chootee phool kobee

Brussels Sprouts. Brassica oleracea, bullata, gemmifera De C. 
This vegetable, in this country only grown in the gardens of amateurs, yet deserving of more esteem, has for a type-form a cabbage with an elongated stalk, and bearing groups of leaf-buds in the axils of the leaves. Sometimes occurring as a monstrosity, branches instead of heads are so developed, as I noted in 1883. 

Quite frequently an early cabbage, after the true head is removed, will develop small cabbages in the leaf-axils, and thus is formed the Brassica capitata polycephalos of Dalechamp, 1587, which he himself describes as a certain unused and rare kind. Authors have stated that the Brussels Sprouts has been grown from time immemorial about Brussels, in Belgium, but, if this be so, it is strange that they escaped the notice of the early botanists, who would have certainly noticed a common plant of such striking appearance and have given a figure. Bauhin, indeed, in 1623 gives the name Brassica ex capitibus pluribus conglobata (wow!!), and adds that some plants bear fifty heads the size of an egg, but his reference to Dalechampius as a synonyme would lead us to infer that the plant known to him was of the same character as that figured by Dalechampius, above noted. Lobel again in 1655 refers to a cabbage like a Brassica polycephalos, but as he had not seen it he says he will affirm nothing. Ray again in 1686 refers to a like cabbage. 

As an aside, I found this eyebrow raising fact...
What in the world is a weresprout?!  A tiny, hairy cabbage with fangs!!??

A. P. Decandolle in 1821 describes the Brussels Sprouts as commonly cultivated in Belgium, and implies its general use in French gardens, but Booth says it is only since about 1854 that it has been generally known in England. A correspondent of the Gardeners' Chronicle in 1850, however, refers to the Tall sorts as generally preferred over the Dwarf by the market gardeners about London. In American gardens it is mentioned in 1806 and this implies its general use in Europe. But two classes are known, the Tall and the Dwarf, and but a few minor variations in these


classes. The tall is quite distinct in habit and leaf from the dwarf, the former having less crowded "sprouts" and a more open character of plant, with leaves scarcely blistered or puckered. As, however, there is considerable variation to be noted in seedlings, furnishing connecting links, the two forms may legitimately be considered as one, the differences being no greater than would be explained by the ob- served power of selection and of the influences for modification which might arise from the influence of cabbage pollen. This, fact of their being but of one type, even if with several variables, would seem to indicate a probability that the origin is to be sought for in a sport, and that our present forms have been derived from the propagation of and selections from the seedlings derived from a suddenly observed variable of the Savoy cabbage type, and, as the lack of early mention and the recent nature of modern mention presupposes, some time scarcely preceding the last century. The names given in various languages to the Brussels Sprouts are as follows : 
  • France, chou de Bruxelles, ch. rosette, ch. a jets, ch. ajetsetrejets, ch. spruytde Bruxelles ; 
  • Germany, rosenkohl, sprossenkohl ; 
  • Flanders and Holland, spedtkool ; 
  • Denmark, rosenkaal ;
  • Italy, cavolo a germoglio ; 
  • Spain, bre tones de Brusselas ; 
  • Portugal, conve de Bruxelas d'olhos repolhudos. 

Buckshorn Plantain. Plantago Coronopus L. A salad plant of very minor importance. It is mentioned as grown in gardens by Camerarius, 1586, and by very many of the other botanists of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries ; is described by Ray in 1686 as cultivated in England, and not differing from the wild plant except in size and in the other accidents of culture. 
Fuchs, L., New Kreüterbuch (1543)
Townsend, in 1726, says the seed is now " in all the Seedsmen's Bills, tho' it is seldom in the Gardens." It is described and figured by Vilmorin among French vegetables. During the three hundred years in which we find it pictured, we find no evidence of any essential changes produced by cultivation. The names in the European languages are, — 
  • English, buckshorn plantain, star of the earth ; 
  • in France, Corne-de-serf courtine, pied-de-corbeau, pied-de-comeville ; 
  • in Germany, hirschhom salat ;
  • in Flanders, vevcrsblad, hertshoom ; 
  • in Italy, corno di cervo, coronopo, erba Stella; 
  • in Spain, estrellamar, cuerno de ciervo. 

By the ancient botanists, Coronopus, Comu cervinum, and Herba stella. 


Bunias. Bunias orientalis L. The young leaves and shoots are rather recommended by Vilmorin either as a salad or boiled. It is named by Tournefort Crambe orientalis, dentis leonis folio, erucaginis facie. Vilmorin gives its native country as Western Asia. 
I do not know of its appearance in American gardens. It is called 
  • in England Turkish Rocket ; 
  • in France, Bunias d Orient. Burdock. Arctium lappa L.

Flora Danica

The use of the succulent stems of the Burdock as a spinage is noted by many authors, as by Ray in England in 1686, and Bryant in 1783, as also by Gerardes in 1633.  

Kalm, before 1770, records the use of the tender shoots as a salad in the region about Lake Champlain, and Bretschneider the use of the roots and tender leaves in China in the fourteenth century.


It remains for Japan to cultivate it as a common vegetable. 

"This root," says Kizo Tamari, a Japanese commissioner to the New Orleans Exposition, "comes third in general estimation among our vegetables. It grows in some districts a foot in circumference and three feet in length, is soft and delicious. It will take a year to get such roots, but generally they do not exceed one inch and a half in diameter." 

This is Japanese testimony; but Penhallow, who spent a year or so in Northern Japan, says the roots are tasteless, hard, and fibrous. As grown at Geneva, N. Y., 1884, the testimony was not in favor of any desirable quality. It was introduced to Europe from Japan by Siebold, and the seed was offered in his trade list of 1856.
  • In Japan it is called gobo and uma busaki;  
  • in English, Edible Gobo ; 
  • in France, Bardane geante a tres grandes feuillcs ; 
  • in Germany, Japanische klettee ; 
  • in Italy, lappola.
This long-cultivated plant presents no differences except in size from the neglected plant of our waysides and fence corners. 

Burnet. Poterium sanguisorba L. (sanguis sorbere - to draw blood; it was thought to help staunch blood and draw the edges of a wound together) The young and tender leaves of the Burnet taste somewhat like a green cucumber, and are employed in salads. It is rarely cultivated in the gardens, but occurs in all our books on gardening. Three varieties are described by Burr, — the Smooth-leaved, the Hairy-leaved, and the Large-seeded. This latter he deems but a seminal variation and a sub-variety only. 
https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Sanguisorba_minor

The following synonymy seems clear : I. Pimpinella sanguisorba minor Icevis. Bauh., Phytopin., 1596, 282. Poteriitm sanguisorba, var. B. Lin., Sp., 141 1. Smooth-leaved. Burr, 1863, 319. II. I find it recorded for American gardens in 1832, and it then was doubtless a long-known plant. It is now grown in the Mauritius.
  • Sanguisorba minor. Fuch., 1542, 790.
  • Pimpinclla and Bipinella. Ang. Burnet, Ad., 1570, 320; Lob. obs., 1576, 412; ic, 1591, i. 718.
  • Small or Garden Pimpernell. Lyte's Dod., 1586, 152.
  • Pimpinella minor. Lugd., 1587, 1087.
  • Pimpitiella sanguisorba minor hirsuta. Bauh., Phytopin., 1596, 282.
  • Pimpinella vulgaris sive minor. Ray, 1686, 401.
  • Poterium sanguisorba. Linn., Sp., 141 1.
  • Hairy-leaved Burnet. Burr, 1863, 319.
The garden culture of Burnet is implied in Lyte's name, 1586. Ray, however, a hundred years later, does not mention culture. In 1693, Quintyne grew it in the royal vegetable garden in France, and in 1726, Townsend says it is "a good plant for Sallads," and Mawe, in 1778, says it has long been cultivated as a salad plant; while Bryant, in 1783, says it is so frequently cultivated in gardens that to describe it would be unnecessary.
  • in Portugal, pimpinella.
  • In France the Burnet is called pimprenelle petite ;
  • in Germany, garten-pimpinelle ;
  • in Flanders and Holland, pimpernel ;
  • in Italy, pimpinella, sclvastrello ;
  • in Spain, pimpinela ;
I found this other bit of more interesting burnet lore from 1855 -
This species of Burnet seems to be that which has acquired so much celebrity as the toper's plant, for it was customary to infuse it in various liquors, and with the Borage and some other flowers it helped to compose that celebrated beverage, called a cool tankard. 
The old herbalists, who called it Pimpinella and Bipula soldegrella, prized it very highly.    "It is," says Culpepper, "an herb the sun challengeth dominion over, and is a most precious herb, little inferior to betonythe continual use of it preserves the body in health, and the spirits in vigour, for if the sun be the preserver of life, under God, then his herbs are the best in the world to do it." 
He adds, " It is a friend to the heart and liver. Two or three of the stalks put into a cask of wine, especially claret, are known to quicken the spirits, refresh and clear the heart, and drive away melancholy. It is a special help to defend the head from noisome vapours, and from infection of the pestilence."


HISTORY OF GARDEN VEGETABLES.

BY E. LEWIS STURTEVANT, A.M., M.D. 

Friday, April 22, 2016

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".
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. 

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.