PLAXTS CULTIVATED FOR THEIR FRUITS. 267 



West Indian Gherkin — Cuciimis Angiiria, Linnseus. 



This small species of cucumber is designated in the 

 Bon Jardiiiier under the name of the cucumber Arada. 

 The fruit, of the size of an egg, is very prickly. It is 

 eaten cooked or pickled. . As the plant is very produc- 

 tive, it is largely cultivated in the American colonies. 

 Descourtilz and Sir Joseph Hooker have published good 

 coloured illustrations of it, and M. Cogniaux a plate with 

 a detailed analysis of the flower.^ 



Several botanists affirm that it is wild in the West 

 Indies. P. Browne,^ in the last century, spoke of the 

 plant as the "little wild cucumber" (in Jamaica). 

 Descourtilz said, '' The cucumber grows wild everywhere, 

 and principally in the dry savannahs and near rivers, 

 whose banks afford a rich vegetation." The inhabitants 

 call it the "maroon cucumber." Grisebach^ saw speci- 

 mens in several other West India Isles, and appears 

 to admit their wild character. M. E. Andre found the 

 species growing in the sand of the sea-shore at Porto- 

 Cabello, and Burchell in a similar locality in Brazil, and 

 Biedel near Rio di Janeiro.* In the case of a number of 

 other specimens gathered in the east of America from 

 Brazil to Florida, it is unknowTi whether they were wild 

 or cultivated. A wild Brazilian plant, badly drawn by 

 Piso,^ is mentioned as belonging to the species, but I am 

 very doubtful of this. 



Botanists from Toumefort down to our own day have 

 considered the Anguria to be of American origin, a native 

 of Jamaica in particular. M. Naudin ^ was the first to 

 point out that all the other species of Cuciiinis are of the 

 old world, and principally African. He wondered whether 

 this one had not been introduced into America by the 

 negroes, like many other plants which have become 



^ Descourtilz, M. Med. des Antilles, v. pi. 329 j Hooker, Bot. Mag., 

 t. 5817 ; Cogniaux, in Fl. Brasil, fasc. 78, pi. 2. 



2 Browne, Jamaica, edit. 2, p. 353. 



3 Grisebach, Fl. of Brit. W. India Is., p. 288. 

 * Cogniaux, uhi supra. 



3 Guanerva.oha, in Piso, Brasil, edit. 1658, p. 264; Marcgraf, 

 edit. 1648, p. 44, without illustration, calls it Cucumis sylvestris Brasilice. 

 ^ Naudin, Ann. Sc. Nat., 4th series, vol. ii. p. 12, 



