30 CIRCULAR NO. 124, BUREAU OF PLANT INDUSTRY. 



cultivated plant. Indeed, it is not clear that he examined the 

 actual specimens, as he writes, ''I predict that the wild forms are 

 slender and twining and bear pods which, when ripe, sprirg open." 

 (Translation.) 



A recent opportunity to study the Yigna material in the Berlin, 

 Kew, and British Museum herbaria and the study of the wild African 

 plant under cultivation has led to the conviction that Kornicke's 

 conclusion regarding the native plant of Africa being the wild form 

 of the cultivated cowpea is correct. The wild species itself is quite 

 variable, and its relationsliip to other supposedly distinct species is 

 not clear. Until these supposed distinct species are also studied 

 under cultivation there must remaui some doubt as to their actual 

 affinity. From herbarium studies the following facts are adduced 

 and conclusions offered: 



Southward from the Sahara Desert and extending across the con- 

 tinent is a wild plant that differs from most cultivated catjangs 

 only in th€ following characters, viz: The leaflets are minutely sca- 

 brous on the upper surface and the petiolules are usually pubescent ; 

 the small pods are dark colored, scabrous, 7 to 8 centimeters long, 

 and in dehiscence the valves coil tightly. In herbaria this plant is 

 usually labeled either Vigna sinensis or Vigna nilotica, and on one of 

 Schweinfurth's sheets the name Vigna spontanea is written. 



The numerous collections of tliis plant include specimens from 

 Egypt, Nubia, Kordofan, Abyssinia, German East Africa, Zanzibar, 

 Senegal, Gold Coast, Kamerun, Nigeria, Angola, Rhodesia, Natal, 

 and ^ladagascar. It is sometimes cultivated, as indicated by 

 Schweinfurth's No. 1778 collected between Debenhuch and Ken eh, 

 Egypt, and No. 888 from Khartum. Lederman also found it cul- 

 tivated at Garua, Kamerun, as sho\m by his specimen No. 5149a. 

 Stuhlman's collections in Zanzibar give the native name as "kunde" 

 or "kunde ya muita," and state that the wild bean is not eaten. 

 The name "kunde" is, however, generally appUed to the cultivated 

 cowpea in German East Africa, or, according to Braun,^ the seeds 

 are called "kunde" and the plants "mkunde." 



In northern Nigeria the wild plant is called '•gayan-gayan" and 

 seeds from specimens collected in Sokoto, Northern Nigeria, by Dr. 

 J. M. Dalziel (No. 318, October, 1910), germinated freely and grew 

 in a greenhouse in Washmgton. The nearly black scabrous pods 

 are about 10 centimeters long. The seeds are 5 millimeters long, 

 buff, marbled with brown, speckled with minute blue dots, and have 

 a few black blotches. Mr. George W. Oliver has already crossed this 

 plant with various varieties of cowpeas. Prof. W. J. Spillman hazards 

 the prediction that the wild ])lant contains in its seed colors all the 



1 Braun, K. Bestimmimijstabi'Ik'n fur dw Eingeboreneiikullumi von Ueutsch-Ost-Afriku. Der 

 pflanzer, Jahrg. 7, No. 8, p. 440, 1911. 

 |Cir. 1-4] 



