1887] History of Garden Vegetables, — 49 
however, made a rude nest of theirs. After I had the animals a 
few days I gave them a little dry earth. The D, deserti, espe- 
cially, were pleased with it, rolling in it, pushing along on their 
bellies, and enjoying a good dust-bath. They looked much better 
for it, the pelage, which had been rough, becoming smooth and 
glossy. 
I think they must sometimes eat insects, as I saw one, when 
hopping about the floor, come across a cricket, which it appeared 
to leap upon, and, as I could find nothing more of the cricket, I 
think the pocket-rat must have eaten it. 
None of the females that I obtained contained embryos, but I 
have a skin of a D. deserti some four or five weeks old, killed 
with a whip by a teamster near Seven Palms, on the Colorado 
Desert, April 1, 1886. A friend has two young D. phillipsi in 
alcohol, taken in October, which were some five or six weeks old 
when taken. 
I think D. deserti will prove to be commonly distributed over 
most of the Mojave and Colorado Deserts west of the Colorado 
River, and possibly they may occur in Arizona and Mexico, 
HISTORY OF GARDEN VEGETABLES. 
BY E. LEWIS STURTEVANT, A.M., M.D." 
x 
HIS series of articles, which should be rather entitled notes 
L on than history of cultivated vegetables, is intended as a pọr- 
tion of a study into the extent of variation that has been produced 
in plants through cultivation. The author has had the great ad- 
vantage of opportunity of studying the growing specimens in 
nearly all the species named, and in nearly all the varieties now 
knọwn to our seed trade; and this study has given him confi- 
dence in the establishing of synonymy, as oftentimes the varia- 
bles within types have furnished clues of importance. The treat- 
ment, as a matter of convenience, is arranged alphabetically, and 
includes the species recognized by Vilmorin-Andrieux in their 
standard work “ Les Plantes Potagères,” 1883, and the English 
edition “ The Vegetable Garden,” 1885, with the exception of the 
z Director of the New York Agricultural Experiment Station, Geneva. 
VOL. XXI.—NO. I. 4 
