2o8 sturtevant's notes on edible plants 



C. sativus Linn, cucumber. 



East Indies. The origin of the cucumber is usually ascribed to Asia and Egypt. 

 Dr. Hooker ' believes the wild plants inhabit the Himalayas from Kimiaun to Sikkim. 

 It has been a plant of cultivation from the most remote times, but De Candolle ' finds 

 no support for the common belief of its presence in ancient Egypt at the time of the Israelite 

 migration into the wilderness, although its culture in western Asia is indicated from philo- 

 logical data as more than 3000 years old. The cucumber is said to have been brought 

 into China from the west, 140-86 B. C.;' it can be identified in a Chinese work on agri- 

 culture of the fifth centiuy and is described by Chinese authors of 1590 and 1640.* 

 Cuctmibers were known to the ancient Greeks ^ and to the Romans, and PUny ' even 

 mentions their forced culture. They find mention in the Middle Ages and in the botanies 

 from Ruellius, 1536, onward. The cuciunber is believed to be the sikus hemeros of 

 Dioscorides, and the sikuos of Theophrastus. Phny ^ says cucimibers were much grown 

 in Africa as well as in Italy in his time, and that the Emperor Tiberius had cuamibers 

 at his table every day in the year. We find reference to them in France in the ninth 

 century, for Charlemagne ordered cuciombers to be planted on his estate. In Cough's * 

 British Topography, cuciombers are stated to have been common in England in the time 

 of Edward III, 1327, but during the wars of the houses of York and Lancaster, their 

 cultivation was neglected, the plant was lost, and they were reintroduced only in 1573. 

 In 1629, Parkinson ' says " in many countries they use to eate coccumbers as wee doe 

 apples or Peares," and they are thus eaten and relished at the present day in southern 

 Russia and in Japan. 



Cuamibers were grown by Columbus '" at Hayti in 1494. In 1535, Cartier " mentions 

 " very great cucximbers " cviltivated by the Indians about Hochelaga, now Montreal. 

 In 1539, De Soto ^ foimd in Florida at Apalache " cuctmibers better than those of Spain " 

 and also at other villages, and, in 1562, Ribault " mentions them as ctiltivated by the 

 Florida Indians. According to Capt. John Smith," Captains Amidos and Barlow mention 

 cucumbers in Virginia in 1584 and they are mentioned as being croltivated there in 1609." 

 Cuamibers were among the Indian vegetables destroyed by General Stillivan in 1779 " 



Burbidge, F. W. Cult. Pis. 277. 1877. 



De CandoUe, A. Orig. Pis. Cult. 266. 1885. 



Bretschneider, E. On Study 15. 1870. 



* Bretschneider, E. Bot. Sin. 78, 59, 83. 1882. 

 ' Theophratus Hist. PI. Bodaeus Ed. 1644. 



' Pliny lib. 19, c. 23. 



' Mcintosh, C. Book Card. 2:663. i^SS- 



Ibid. 



Parkinson Par. Terr. 524. 1904. (Reprint of 1629) 

 " Irving, W. Columbus 1:380. 1859. 

 " Pinkerton CoW. Foy. 12:652. 1812. 

 " De Soto Disc. Conq. Fla. Hakl. Soc. Ed. 9:44. 185 1. 

 " Hakluyt, R. Coll. Divers Voy. Amer. Hakl. Soc. Ed. 7:102. 1840. 

 "Pinkerton Co//. Foy. 13:6. 1812. 



" True Decl. Va. 13. 1610. Force Coll. Tracts. 3: No. 3. 1844. 

 " Conover, G. S. Early Hist. Geneva 45. 1879. 



