STURTEVANT S NOTES ON EDIBLE PLANTS 209 



in the Indian fields about Kashong, near the present Geneva, N. Y. At the Bermudas, 

 " cowcumbers " were planted in 1609.' In Massachusetts, they are mentioned in 1629 

 by Rev. Francis Higginson; ^ William Wood ' mentions them in his New England's Pros- 

 pects, 1629-33. In Brazil, cucumbers were seen by Nieuhoff* in 1647 and by Father 

 Angelo * in 1666. 



There are a great ntmiber of varieties varying from the small gherkin to the mammoth 

 English varieties which attain a length of twenty inches or more. The cultivated gherkin 

 is a variety^ used exclusively for pickling and was in American gardens in 1806. 

 At Unyanyembe, Central Africa, and other places where the cucumber grows almost 

 wild, says Burton,* the Arabs derive from its seed an admirable salad oil, which in flavor 

 equals and perhaps surpasses the finest produce of the olive. Vilmorin in Les Plantes 

 Potageres, 1883, describes 30 varieties. Most, if not all, of these as well as others including 

 59 different names have been grown on the grounds of the New York Agricultural Experi- 

 ment Station. "WTiile some of the varieties grown differ but little, yet there are many 

 kinds which are extraordinarily distinct. 



Types of Cucumbers. 



The types of our common cucumbers are fairly well figured in the ancient botanies, 

 but the fruit is far inferior in appearance to those we grow today, being apparently more 

 rugged and less symmetrical. The following synonymy is established from figures and 

 descriptions: 



I. 



Cucumis sativus vulgaris. Fuch. 697. 1542. 



Cucumis sativus. Roeszl. 116. 1550; Cam. E^i/. 294. 1586. 



Cucumis. Trag. 831. 1552; Fischer 1646. 



Cucumis vulgaris. Ger. 762, 1597; Chabr. 134. 1677. 



Concomhre. Toum. t. 32. 1719. 



f Sliort Green. Park. Par. 1629. 



? Short Green Prickly. Mawe 1778; Mill. Diet. . 1807. 



Early Green Cluster. Mill. Diet. 1807. 



Green Cluster. Thorb. 1828. 



Early Cluster of American seedsmen. 



II. 



A second form, very near to the above, but longer, less rounding and more prickly 

 has a synonymy as below: 



Cucumeres. Matth. 282. 1558. 



Cucumis sativus. Dalechamp 1:620. 1587. 



Cticumeres sativi and esculenti Lob. Icon. 1:638. 1591. 



Cucumis vulgaris Dod. 662. 161 6. 



Cedruolo. Dur. C. 103. 161 7. 



' Newes from Barmudas 20. 1613. Force Coll. Tracts. 3: No. 3. 1844. 



Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll. ist Ser. 1:118. 1806. (Reprint of 1792) 

 'Wood, W. New Eng. Prosp. 15. 1865. 



Churchill Co//. Koy. 1:132. 1732. 

 ' Churchill Co//. Foy. 1:489. 1744. 



Burton, R. F. Lake Reg. Cent. Afr. 465. i860. 



