THE HISTORY OF THE COWPEA. 47 



the first English settlement. The authors of the eighteenth century 

 record a greater number of legumes than the authors of either the 

 sixteenth or seventeenth centuries, and there are frequent references 

 in the literature of that period to the introduction of seeds from the 

 Old World. Not a single species of Dolichos is known except in a 

 cultivated state in North America north of ISIexico, and Hemsley does 

 not enumerate any in the Biologia Centrali-Americana. Onl}^ one 

 species of Vigna, V. repens^ now found spontaneous throughout the 

 Tropics, has the appearance of being indigenous to either North or 

 Central America, while about 10 species of Phaseolus are known in 

 a wild state in North America, and Hemsley enumerates 41 in the 

 Bioloffia Centrali-Americana for Central America. 



The time at which important American food plants were intro- 

 duced into England is also significant in regard to the origin of these 

 plants. The following dates are given on the authority of Alton 

 (Hortus Kewensis, 1789) : Zea mays was cultivated in 1562; Nicotiana 

 tdbacum before 1570, but the exact date is apparently not known; 

 Lycopersicon lycopersicuTn was cultivated in 1596; Phaseolus vulgaris 

 in 1597, and P. coccineus {P. multifonis Lam.) in 1597. The date 

 given for P. lunatus is 1779, but the figure and description of Gerard's 

 third kind (Gerard, 1597, Herbal, 1039), correspond veiy closely to 

 the so-called sieva type of P. lunatus, and it is possible that it had 

 been introduced at an earlier date and, not meeting with favor, dis- 

 aj)peared, but there is no evidence that Vigna unguiculata and Doli- 

 chos sesquipedalis were introduced into England before 1776 and 

 1781, respectively. With one possible exception, therefore, plants of 

 undoubted American origin were cultivated in England more than a 

 century and a half before Vigna unguiculata or Dolichos sesquipedalis. 

 This would scarcely have been the case if the two last-named species 

 had been cultivated in America for a long period, as the first-named 

 were. 



Of the two kinds distinguished by Hariot in 1588, the one called 

 " Peaze " is without doubt the kidney bean, as it is called "Peaze, 

 * * * for distinction sake * * * though in form they little 

 differ " from the bean except in size. The latter is compared with 

 the English bean (Vicia faha) in size and partly in shape, and is 

 either a large form of kidney bean or the Lima bean. If the words 

 " Fagiole " and " Garnanses " or garvanses are confounded by Smith, 

 the " pease " which he mentions probably refers to a species of Lathy- 

 rus or Vicia, and the " Beanes " to the common kidney bean. There 

 can be little doubt that " Garnanses " is a corruption of the Spanish 

 garhanzo^ French garvance. It has also been written " garavance," 

 " garvancos," and " gravances." The writer has been unable to find 



4359— No. 102—07 4 



