50 MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. 



Jamaica, but does not include Vigna tmguiculata, his calavance, as 

 noted above, being a different plant. If Vigna unguiculata had been 

 cultivated in Jamaica at that time it would probably have been men- 

 tioned with the other cultivated legumes Hughes described. Sloane 

 visited the island in 1687, remaining fifteen months, and found both 

 the red and white seeded forms, and it is therefore very probable 

 that they reached Jamaica some time between the years 1672 and 

 1687. Any plant that had been found valuable in Jamaica would no 

 doubt soon be tried in the southern colonies, for the early accounts of 

 the colonies indicate that they frequently obtained seeds of new plants 

 for trial. The Georgia colony even sent a man to the Spanish West 

 Indies to secure new plants (Francis Moore, 1744, A Voyage to 

 Georgia, Georgia Historical Society, 1840, 1:99). It is therefore 

 possible that even the calavance of Lawson, 1714, is F. nngniculata. 

 The statement of Brickell, 1737 (Natural History of North Carolina), 

 that these jilants were in America before the arrival of the Europeans 

 can scarcely be taken seriously, for he makes it on the authority of 

 the settlers and Indians who would easily confuse plants so similar in 

 appearance as Vigna unguiculata and Phaseolus vulgaris. The ex- 

 portations of peas mentioned by some of the early historians probably 

 refer to English peas, as Lawson, 1714 (Hist. Carolina, 130, 131), 

 says English peas " have been made trial of " and " yield very well." 

 The first unmistakable reference to the occurrence of Vigna un- 

 guiculata on the mainland of America appears in Romans (1775), 

 Natural History of East and West Florida, 122, where the author 

 says: " Pease, as the}' are here called but improperh', because species 

 of the Phaseolus and Dolichos are meant, follow the maize in utility. 

 It is well known that most people use them like European pease either 

 green or dry, and some kinds, such as the small white sort, the bona- 

 vist, cuckolds increase, the white black-eyed pea, the white crowder, 

 and many others, are undoubtedly at least as good." The " small 

 white sort " is doubtless a white variety of the common bean ; bona- 

 vist probably refers to Dolichos lahlah. " Cuckolds increase " is ap- 

 plied by Patrick Brown, 1756 (Natural History of Jamaica, 292), to 

 a species which he says resembles his seventh species, " Phaseolus 

 erectus major," Sloane, Avhich is Vigna unguiculata. Lunan, 1814 

 (Hortus Jamaicensis, 1 : 434) , ssijs the " cuckolds increase " " seems 

 to be a species of dolichos, as does the bonavist." The white black- 

 eyed pea is undoubtedly identical also with the black-eyed pea of 

 Jamaica, another common form of Vigna unguiculata. The " white 

 crowder " does not appear to be described by either Sloane or Brown. 

 With the exception of the " small white sort " and the " white crow- 

 der " the names given by Romans were also given by Brown nineteen 

 years earlier, and by Lunan thirty-nine years later, and the fact that 



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