History of Garden Vegetables. 425 
Gherkin. Cucumis anguria L. 
This vegetable is described by Marcgrav,! in Brazil, in 1648, the 
name Cucumis sylvestris Brasilee indicating an uncultivated plant. 
Ten years later Piso? described it also as a wild plant of Brazil 
under the name guarerva-oba or Cucumer asinius, and gives a 
figure. It has also been found in the Antilles and continental 
tropical and sub-tropical America, New Granada and South Flor- 
ida.’ It is not mentioned as cultivated in Jamaica, by Sloane,‘ in 
1696. Its fruit is mentioned as being used in soups and pickles, 
apparently gathered from the wild plant, by Long, in 1774, Tit- 
ford,’ in 1812, and Lunan,” in 1814. It is, however, cultivated in 
French Guiana and Antiqua. Although described by Ray, in 
1686 and 1794, and grown by Miller in his botanic garden in 
1755, it yet does not appear as if in the vegetable gardens of 
England in 1807,” although it was known in the gardens of the 
United States" in 1806. In France it was under cultivation in 
1824 and 1829,” but apparently was abandoned, and was reintro- 
duced by Vilmorin in 1858.3 
The small girkin, round prickly gherkin)! West India gherkin, 
or prickly fruited gherkin is called in France concombre des anti 
angurie, concombre a spines, C. d’ Amerique, C. marron, C. aih 
pe bryg C. arada (erroneously); in Germany, west-indische 
urke, 
I do not find mention of any varieties. 
Globe Cucumber. Cucumis prophetarum L. 
The flesh of this cucumber is scanty and too bitter to be edible, 
1 Maregrav. Hist. Bras., 1648, 44. 
2 Piso. Hist. Bras., 1658, 264. 
? Naudin. Am. des Se. Nat., pp. 8, p. 12. 
*Sloane. Cat. Jam., 1696, 103. 
*Lunan. Hort. Jam. , 1814, i., 254. 
3 Cogniaux. Cucurbitaceæ in D. C. Monog., iii., 501. 
°’ Ray. Hist., 1886 ; h, 1704, 333. 
1 Miller’s Dict., 180 
x Fessenden. New Am. ppsa 1828, 52. 
Vilmorin. Les Pl. Pot., 
