2Q6 ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS 



thousand years, was only introduced into China in the 

 second century before Christ, when the ambassador 

 Chang-kien returned from Bactriana.^ The species 

 spread more rapidly towards the West. The ancient 

 Greeks cultivated the cucumber under the name ofsikuos,^ 

 which remains as sik^ba in the modern language. Tlie 

 modern Greeks have also the name aggouria, from Mn 

 ancient Aryan root which is sometimes applied to the 

 water-melon, and which recurs for the cucumber in 

 the Bohemian agurka, the German Gurke, etc. The 

 Albanians (Pelasgians ?) have quite a different name, 

 kratsavets.^ which we recognize in the Slav Krastavak. 

 The Latins called the cucumber cvbcumis. These different 

 names show the antiquity of the species in Europe. 

 There is even an Esthonian name, uggurits, ukkurits, 

 iirits} It does not seem to be Finnish, but to belong to 

 the same Aryan root as aggouria. If the cucumber came 

 into Europe before the Aryans, there would perhaps be 

 some name peculiar to the Basque language, or seeds 

 would have been found in the lake -dwellings of Switzer- 

 land and Savoy ; but this is not the case. The peoples 

 in the neighbourhood of the Caucasus have names quite 

 different to the Greek ; in Tartar kiar, in Kalmuck chaja, 

 in Armenian karan.^ The name chiar exists also in 

 Arabic for a variety of the cucumber.^ This is, therefore, 

 a Turanian name anterior to the Sanskrit, whereby its 

 culture in Western Asia would be more than three 

 thousand years old. 



It is often said that the cucumber is the kischschuim, 

 one of the fruits of Egypt regretted by the Israelites in 

 the desert. '^ However, I do not find any Arabic name 

 among the three given by Forskal which can be con- 

 nected with this, and hitherto no trace has been found 

 Df the presence of the cucumber in ancient Egypt. 



» Bretschneider, letters of Aug. 23 and 26, 1881. 



• Theophrastus, Hist., lib. 7, cap. 4; Lenz, Bot. der Alien, p. 492. 



• Heldreich, Nutzpjl. Griechen., p. 50. 



• Nemnich, Polygl. Lex., i. p. 1306. 



» Nemnich, ihid. • Forskal, Fl. ^gypt., p. 76. 



» RosenmuUer, Bihlische Alterth., i. p. 97 ; Hamilton, Bot de la BilU^ 

 p. 34. 



