gto History of Garden Vegetables. a [ 
men to be grown as a curiosity, but it may be used for pickling 
This plant was known to the herbalists, and its figures compar 
with those of our modern seedsmen, as, for instance: 
Cucumis longus. Lugd., 1587, i. 621. 
Green Serpent. Dammon Cat., 1884-85. 
Concombre Serpent. Vilmorin, 1883, 166. 
The fruit is characterized by its striz, which render it at one 
recognizable, In Japan it is called sjo kwa, awo uri} 4 
Cumin. Cuminum cyminum L. 
A small annual plant indigenous to the upper regions of thè 
Nile, but carried at an early period by cultivation to Arabia, 
India, and China, as well as to the countries bordering on the 
Mediterranean.? Itis referred to by the prophet Isaiah, andis 
mentioned in Matthew.4 Pliny’ calls it the best appetizer of all 
the condiments, says the Ethiopian and the African are of sit 
perior quality, but that some prefer the Egyptian. During the 
middle ages Cumin was one of the species in most common Us 
and is mentioned in Normandy in 716, in England between 1264 
and 1400, and is enumerated in 1419 among the merchandise 
taxed in the city of London. It is mentioned in many of 
herbals of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and ie e 
corded as under cultivation in England in r504°. In India * 
seeds form an ingredient of some curry powders and picke: 
and in France yet find use in cookery. The seed is gcaint 
ally advertised in American seed-catalogues, but is pr i 
very rarely grown. ka 
= Cumin is named, in France, Cumin de Malte; in Btn 
Lfeffer-kummel ; in Holland, omijn ; in Italy, comino di 
in Spain, comino; in Greece, kumino; in Egypt, ™ 
-in Egyptian, kapen, or tapen, or tapn ;* in Arabic, J 
_ Bengali, yeera, or zira; in Ceylon, dooroo; in Hint ae 
zira; in Malay, jintan; in Sanscrit, jeruka ajaji; ™ 
siragum ; in Telegu, gilakara.* 
` * Kaempfer, Amæn., 1712, 811. 2 Pharmacographia, 1879 33" 
3 Isaiah, ch. xxviii, 25-27. 4 Matthew, ch. xxiii. 23- 
5 Pliny, lib: xix. c. 47. 6 Mill. Dict., 1807, 
7 Dutt., Hind. Mat. Med. i 173. 8 Vilmorin, Les Pl. Pot., 1883+ 
9 Vick’s Cat. 1884. to Pickering, Ch, Hist., 215. - 
u Birdwood, Veg. Prod, of Bomb., 40, 237. 
