694 The American Naturalist. [August, 
THE HISTORY OF GARDEN VEGETABLES. 
BY E. L. STURTEVANT. 
(Continued from page 744, Vol. XXIV., 1890.) 
stacuys. ‘Stachys affinis Vil. 
HIS plant was introduced into cultivation by Messrs. Vil- 
morin-Andrieux et Cie, in 1886.! The roots are thick and 
fleshy, and are called useful for pickles, and may be used fried. 
According to Bretschneider the roots were eaten as a vegetable 
in. China in the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries, and are 
described as a cultivated vegetable by Chinese writings of 1640 
and 1742. It is used as a cultivated vegetable in Japan, and is 
called choro-gi, and, as Mr. Tamari tells me, it is esteemed. 
SUGAR BEET. Beta vulgaris var. 
These are selected forms from the common beet, and scarcely 
deserve a separate classification. Those figured by Vilmorin are 
all of the type of the half-long red, agree in being mostly under- 
ground, and in being very or quite scaly about the collar. The 
sugar beet has been developed through selection of the roots 
richest in sugar for seed-bearers.. The sugar-beet industry was 
born in France in 1811, and in 1826 the product of the crop was 
1,500 tons of sugar. The formation of the “sugar beet” could 
not, then, have preceded 1811; yet in 1824 five varieties, the 
grosse rouge, petite rouge, rouge ronde, jaune, and blanche, are 
noted,’ and the French sugar or amber reached American gar- 
dens before 1828. A richness of from sixteen to eighteen per 
cent. of sugar is now claimed for Vilmorin’s new improved white 
sugar beet. 
! Vilmorin-Andrieux et Cie. Seed Cat., 1886, with figures. 
2 Bretschneider. Bot. Sin., 53. 59, 83, 85. 
3 L'Hort. Fran. , 1824. 
í Fessenden. New Am., Gard., 1828, 40. 
5 Vilmorin. Les Pl. Pot., 1883, sr. 
ê Burr. Field and Gard. Veg., 399. 


