RECENT CHINESE VEGETABLES. 191 



Siebold is the same. This latter plant is known only by the following inci- 

 dental reference to it by Miquel : 



" Brassica Japonica Sieb., in Europa eseminibus Japonicis educta, cum 

 6'z«(?/'//'^/'^'^^^'^'^ Th., floribuscongruit, diagnosing, auricidatae DC, hand 

 repudians, nobis ob sp. incompletum uimis incerta." 



It has seemed better^ however, to accept Siebold's species to be the same 

 as Thimberg's— inasmuch as there is no evidence that it is not the same — 

 than to propose a new name for our plant. 



5. Brassica juNCEA, Coss. Bull. Soc. Bot. France, vi. 609 (1859). 

 Sinapisjuncea, L,inn., Sp. Pi. 668 (1753). 



Radical leaves generally abundant and often very large, oval or oboval in 

 outline, the blade angled or toothed, tapering into a narrow petiole which 

 generally bears leafy appendages ; lower stem-leaves more or less toothed and 

 petiolate, the upper ones oblong or oblong-lanceolate and entire and closely 

 sessile or clasping ; flowering stems and leaves more or less lightly glaucous ; 

 flowers bright yellow ; pod slender, of medium size, tapering into a short 

 beak. 



This mnch abused species is held by Hooker and Thomson (Journ. Linn. 

 Soc. V. 170) to include a great variety of forms, as Sinapis lavigata, Linn., 

 5. integrifolia, Willd., S. ramosa, rugosa, patens, cuneifolia, Roxbg., S. 

 lanceolata, DC, and others. There are two types of il in cultivation in our 

 gardens, one with the radical leaves somewhat sharply toothed and nearly 

 smooth below (comprising the Kew Brassica (or Sinapis) rugosa), the other 

 with root leaves obtusely toothed and spinescent on the veins below (compris- 

 ing Chinese mustard, Chinese Broad-leaved mustard and Brown mustard). 

 Linnseus founded his 6'/?/a/»/.s /««f6'a upon a figure in Hermann's Paradisus 

 (Hermann, Paradisus Batavus, t 230. 1705), which represents a plant very 

 like the former type mentioned above, and which Hermann described as 

 lettuce-leaved. 



II. CUBURBITS. 



Zit-kwa,-"^ or Chinese Preserving Melon . {Benincasa cerifcrd). 



This plant appears to be a common inhabitant of Chinese gar- 

 dens. Under the name of Chinese Preserving melon, it was in- 

 troduced in 1892}- b}^ John IvCwis Childs. I am told that in the 

 Chinese quarter of San Francisco" it is known as Chinese water- 

 melon. The plant is one of the melon family, and is well known 

 as a garden esculent in India, where it is native, and in other 

 Asiatic countries. The aspect of the vine is not unlike that of a 



* Mr. L. Wing regards Kwa as the best spelling of the Chinese word for 

 squash or gourd. Bretschneider, however {On the Study of Chinese Botani- 

 cal Works, etc.), uses Kua. It is sometimes spelled qua. 



t Annals of Horticulture, 1892, 181. 



