[200] Adiantum pedatum, L.—The European A. Camillus veneris, L., long used as a pectoral (the sirop de capillaire of French shops being made of it), is, according to Messrs. Wood and Bache (Dispens., p. 1290), “feebler” than our species, which Josselyn recommends.
[202] Johnson’s Gerard, p. 183: which is perhaps Allium magicum, L.; for which our A. tricoccum, Ait., may have been mistaken.—[See also p. 54] of this; note.
[203] Epilobium angustifolium, L. (rosebay willow-herbe of Gerard by Johnson); which last figures it at p. 477: common to Europe and America; but some botanists have, like Josselyn, reckoned the American plant “proper to the country.”
[204] Helianthus, L. (Gerard, p. 751), a genus peculiar to America; called “American marygold” in the Voyages (p. 59), where it is set down among the more striking of our New-England flowers. [At p. 82] of this book, the author gives a cut of the “marygold of America,” which he describes. It is probably the second one above mentioned, and perhaps H. strumosus, L., Gray. The other kind, with “black seeds,” was probably H. divaricatus, L.
[205] [See p. 47]. The earth-nuts of Gerard (p. 1064) are species of Bulbocastanum of authors.
[206] Not clear to me. But, taking the alleged virtues and the station into account, our author may mean here the rather striking American sea-rocket (Cakile Americana, Nutt.); which, it is likely, occurred to him. Spurge-time [(p. 43)] also grows on “sea-banks.”
[207] “French beans; or, rather, American beans. The herbalists call them kidney-beans, from their shape and effects; for they strengthen the kidneys. They are variegated much,—some being bigger, a great deal, than others; some white, black, red, yellow, blue, spotted: besides your Bonivis, and Calavances, and the kidney-bean that is proper to Ronoake. But these are brought into the country: the other are natural to the climate.”—Josselyn’s Voyages, p. 73-4. R. Williams (Key, l. c., p. 208) gives manusquussedash as the Indian word for beans. Cornuti (whose book, indeed, is not confined to Canadian plants; though, on the other hand, he was sometimes ill informed of the true locality of his specimens; as in the case of Asclepias Cornuti, Decsne, which he published as A. Syriaca) figures and describes, at pp. 184-5, Phaseolus multiflorus, L.; and this may possibly have been raised from seeds procured by French missionaries from the Canadian savages: but P. vulgaris, L., our well-known bush-bean, is doubtless what Josselyn has mainly in view, as cultivated by the native Americans.
[208] “Askutasquash,—their vine-apples,—which the English, from them, call squashes: about the bigness of apples of several colours.”—R. Williams, Key, &c., l. c., p. 222. “In summer, when their corn is spent, isquotersquashes is their best bread; a fruit much like a pumpion.”—Wood, New-Eng. Prospect, part 2, chap. vi. The late Dr. T. W. Harris made the ill-understood edible gourds a special object of study, and devoted particular attention to the ascertaining of the kinds cultivated by the American savages; but his papers have not as yet seen the light. The warted squash (Cucurbita verrucosa, L.) and the orange-gourd (C. aurantium, Willd.)—the fruit of which last is of the size and color of an orange, and “more tender than the common pompion” (Loudon, Encycl. Pl.)—are perhaps, in part, intended by our author.
[209] “Pompions and water-mellons, too, they have good store,” says our author (Voyages, p. 130); and again, at p. 74 of the same, “The water-melon is proper to the countrie. The flesh of it is of a flesh-colour; a rare cooler of feavers, and excellent against the stone.” The water-melon (Cucurbita citrullus, L.) is “the only medicine the common people use in ardent fevers,” in Egypt (Loudon, l. c.). Cucurbita pepo, L. (Gr. πέπων; Low Dutch, pepoen, pompoen; Fr., pompone), is our English pompion, or pumpkin. At p. 91, Josselyn speaks of pompions “proper to the country.” Compare Gerard’s chapter “of melons, or pompions” (Johnson’s Gerard, p. 918), where are two Virginian sorts; and see “the ancient New-England standing dish,” [at p. 91] of this book. The evidence appears to be sufficient, that our savages had in cultivation, together with their corn and tobacco,—and, like these, derived originally from tropical regions,—several sorts of what we call squashes, some kinds of pompion, and also water-melons; and, Graves’s letter (New-England Plantation, l. c., p. 124) adds, musk-melons. See further, especially, Champlain (Voy. de la Nouv. France, passim) and L’Escarbot (Hist. de la Nouv. France, vol. ii. p. 836). Mr. A. De Candolle (Geogr. Bot., vol. ii. pp. 899, 904) disputes the American origin of the edible gourds, but does not appear to have examined all the early authorities for their cultivation by the savages before the settlement of this country. Such cultivation appears to be made out, and to indicate that these vegetables have probably been known, from very remote antiquity, in the warmer parts of America. But this does not touch the difficult question of origin; and it may still appear that the gourds are equally ancient in Europe, and derived, both here and there, from Asia (De Cand., l. c.); such derivation being explainable, in the case of America, by old migrations from Asia through Polynesia.—Pickering, Races of Man, chap. 17.