An Test was Re: SC - Truck Crops

[Decker, Terry D.]

> TerryD at Health.State.OK.US writes:
> 
> << The term appears in
>  Roman writings after the beginning of major trade with Africa which
>  increases the probability that they were writing about some 
> form of the
>  black-eyed pea.
>   >>
> 
> Possibly but, as I have stated before, I think this is 
> likely. I have been 
> pondering the kidney bean question for over 2 years and I am 
> firmly convinced 
> that the 'kidney' bean as referenced in pre-New World 
> writings is 'Vigna 
> unguiculata sesquipedalis', a member of the cowpea family. 
> <clipped>
> 
> Ras

Black-eyed pea and cowpea are synonymous.  You are attempting to limit
"phaseolus" to one variety of Vigna, when it would probably have been
applied to all the variants.  Have you compared the other members of the
species to the illustration? 

Here's a quote to give you food for thought:

Piper, Charles V., Forage Plants and Their Culture, Revised Edition;
MacMillan co., New York, 1936.

"  Botanical names.--There are three groupe of cowpeas in cultivation which
have been given different botanical and common names.  These are:  the
catjang, or Hindu cowpea called botanically Vigna cylindrica or V. catjang
with small erect pods and small subcylindric seeds; the asparagus or
yardlong bean (Vigna sesquipedalis) with much elongated inflated pods which
in ripening collapse about the kidney-shaped seeds; and the cowpea with
pendent rather long firm-walled pods and rather larger seeds.  These are not
distinct species, as all possible interproductions occur.  Indeed there is a
series of varieties in Java quite intermediate between the cowpeas and the
asparagus beans.  Such a specimen is the basis of Vigna sinensis Endlicher.
Linnaeus took the name Dolichos sinensis from Rumphius, who in describing
the plants of Amboina evidently thought the plant was of Chinese origin and
hence used the name sinensis.  Inasmuch as the catjang, the asparagus bean,
and the cowpea clearly belong to one botanical species, the name Vigna
sinensis properly applies to all three.  An older name Dolichos unguiculatus
L. (Vigna unguiculata Walp.) based on a plant from Barbados has been
supposed to be the cowpea, but the evidence is very unsatisfactory.

"  Various other common names are or have been used for the cowpea, such as
Indian pea, China bean, Kafir bean, Callivance, Southern pea.

"  Agricultural history.--In the Old World, particularly Africa and Asia, as
well as the Mediterranean region of Europe, the cowpea is of ancient
cultivation for human food.  It is without a doubt the phaseolus of Pliny,
Columella and other Roman writers, but this name became applied also to the
kidney-bean following its introduction in Europe from America.  In Italy,
however, the black-eyed cowpea is still called by the same name as
kidney-beans, namely, fagiolo.

"  The cowpea early became introduced into the West Indies and was well
known in North Caroline as early as 1714.  Its culture had extended to
Virginia by 1775, and was probably general early in the nineteenth century.

"  In the United States, the cowpea has always been grown mainly as a forage
and restorative crop, but the seeds, particularly of the white or the nearly
white-seeded varieties, are commonly used as human food, especially in the
South.

"  As early as 1798, several varities are mentioned by American writers, one
of which, with buff-colored seeds, was called the "Cow" pea.  From this
variety the name has become extended to the whole crop.  It is also known as
China bean and in South Africa as Kafir bean."

Bear