THK HISTORY OF THE COWPKA. 53 



It may be seen from the facts presented that there is no evidence 

 that Vigna iinguiculata was one of the native heans of America. 

 On the contrary, it appears to have been first introduced into 

 Jamaica at some time between 1(572 and 1G87 and to have reached 

 one or more of tlie southernmost colonies, proljably from Januiica, 

 s:ometime after the hitter date, but before 1737, and its use to have 

 extended gradually northward until it reached the Potomac about 

 1790 or 1795. 



Notwithstanding the confusion wrought by connnentators seeking 

 to identify Phaseoliis ruhjans with one of the climbing ])lants of 

 Theophrastus and Dioscorides, European botanical literature alfords 

 ver}^ convincing evidence of the Old AVorld oi-igin of VigiKi un- 

 guiculata. 



Phaseolus vulgaris appears to have reached central Europe about 

 1530, and many authors at once identified it with Dioscorides's SmiJax 

 kepaia, or, as translated into Latin, Smilax hortensis. The species 

 is discussed by Brunfels, 1536 (Herb. VW. Ic, 3: 130), and identified 

 on the authority of HeironN'nnis Tragus with Dioscorides's plant. 

 Brunfels in his Exegesis onniium simplicium Dioscorides (Brun- 

 fels,** 1532, Herb. Viv. Ic, 2:114), does not identify Smilax more 

 than to say that, according to Barbarus, it is a kind of phaseolus, 

 and it is evident that Phaseolus ralgaris was not known to this author 

 when volume 2 of his work Avas written. Bock, 1540 (Kreuterbuch, 

 230), has a good colored figure of the kidney bean, and says it has 

 lately come into Germany. 



Matthiolus, 1588 (Opera, 341), says that phasioli arc common in 

 Italy, but he apparently confuses the dwarf form of Phaseolas vul- 

 garis with the " phasiolus ■' of the ancients. Xo stipules are shown in 

 his figure, and it is probably Phaseolus vulgans. In the earlier 

 editions of Matthiolus's works, which appeared while the author lived 

 in Italy and southern Austria, no bean with " black-ej^ed "' seeds is 

 described among the various sorts of " phasiolus." In a later work, 

 Matthiolus, 1565, Commentarii, 429, the dedication of which was 

 written at Prague, and dated January, 1505, seeds with a black ring 

 about the eye are described, but the figure is the same as in the work 

 issued in 1558. In Camerarius's edition of jNIatthiolus, 1580 (De 

 plantis epitome utilissima, 212), however, the figure of phaseo- 

 lus is Vigna ungniculata. It is certain that a low-growing I'egumi- 

 nous plant, resembling the dwarf form of Phaseolus vulgaris^ was cul- 

 tivated in the Mediterranean region of southern Europe before the 

 discovery of America. Several of the ancient treatises on agriculture 

 give cultural directions for such a plant. Many, if not all, of the 



".The edition of this work published iu 15oG was the oue consulted. 

 102— VI 



