1885.] Kitchen Garden Esculents of American Origin. 447 
more upon botanical writers than upon mention by voyagers and 
historians. If we peruse the early accounts of American discov- 
ery, we find beans mentioned as of almost universal occurrence 
among the native tribes, but what bean was meant must be in- 
ferred from other data. In the north-eastern portion of America 
it is probable that such mention is of Phaseolus vulgaris; in the 
central portion, of this and some species of the Dolichos ; further 
south, the Dolichos and lima are perhaps often included; in the 
south-west, the mesquit bean. All these sorts, whichever genus 
was intended, served as food for the traveler, and were doubtless, 
all but the mesquit, secured as provision by the many exploring 
vessels victualed in those times from the productions of the coun- 
tries visited. 
We have absolutely no certain information which leads us to 
suppose that Phaseolus vulgaris existed in the old world before 
the discovery of America. The only evidence we find is the 
early use of the word “kidney-bean” by voyagers, as when 
Columbus, in 1502, found “ red and white beans, resembling the 
kidney-beans of Spain,”? but this is in a translation; or when 
Strachey says the beans of Virginia “are the same which the 
Turks call garvances ;’” but Strachey was in Virginia in 1610, 
and before this the kidney-bean seems well known in Southern 
Europe. There is no certainty that it was known to the ancient 
Greeks and Romans. According to De Candolle? this bean is 
not among the numerous seeds that have been unearthed from 
the ruins of ancient Troy, nor has it been found in the lacustrine 
débris of the lakes of Switzerland, Savoy, Austria and Italy. 
There is no proof that it existed in ancient Egypt. It is not 
mentioned by ancient Chinese authors. The authors of the 
fifteenth century, such as Crescenzio and Macer Floridus, do not 
speak of it. The authors of the sixteenth century, after the dis- 
covery of America, all publish figures and descriptions of P. vul- 
garis with an infinity of varieties.’ Kidney-beans are stated to 
have been introduced into England " 1597, some say imported 
from the Netherlands as early as 1509.° French beans are, how- 
1Knox. Coll. of Voy., 1767, I, 147- 
amabas Virginia. Hak. Soc. ed., 117. 
3 Origine des Plants Cultivées, 272. 
t Bretschneider. On the study and value of Chinese botanical works, &c. 
5 De Candolle, l. c., 272. 
6 W. S. Booth, Treas. of Bot. 
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