Hedrick, U.P. editor. 1919. Sturtevant's Notes on Edible Plants. Report of the New York Agricultural Experiment Station for the Year 1919 II. Albany, J.B Lyon Company, State Printers. [References Available]
is grown in the tropical regions. This species is said by Booth to be the bonnet pepper of Jamaica. The fruits are very fleshy and have a depressed form liek a Scotch bonnet. In lower Hungary, under the name paprika, the cultivation gives employment to some 2500 families. The fruit is red, some three and a half to five inches long, and three-quarters of an inch to an inch in diameter.
McMahon, 1806, says capsicums are in much estimation for culinary purposes and mentions the Large Heart-shaped as the best. He names also the Cherry, Bell and Long Podded. In 1826, Thorburn offers in his catalog five varieties, the Long or Cayenne, the Tomato-shaped or Squash, the Bell or Ox-heart, the Cherry and the Bird or West Indian. In 1881 he offers ten varieities.
GROUPS OF CAPSICUM
In the varieties udner present cultivation, we have distinct characters in the calyx of several of the groups and in the fruit being pendulous or erect. It is worthy of note that the pendulous varieties have a pendulous bloom as well as fruit, and the erect varieties have erect bloom. Some heavy fruits are erect, while some light fruits are pendulous. Another distinct character is the flavor of the fruit, as for instance all the sweet peppers have a like calyx, and a like color. l While again there may seem at first to be considerable variability in the fruits even on the same plant, yet a more careful examination shows that this variability is more apparent than real and comes from a suppression or distortion of growth, all really being of a similar type.
This history of the botany of the groups can best be seen by the synonymy, which is founded upon figures given with the descriptions.
I.
THE CALYX EMBRACING THE FRUIT.
(a)Fruits pendulous.
This form seems to have been the first introduced and presents fruits of extreme pungency and is undoubtedly that described as brought to Europe by Columbus. It presents varieties with straight and recurved fruit and the fruit when ripe is often much contorted and wrinkled.
Capsicum longum. DCALLIGONUM from Fingerhuth. Siliquastrum tertium. Langer Indianischer pfeffer. Fuch. 733. 1542. Siliquastrum minus. Fuch 1 CALLIGONUM 732. Indianischer pfeffer. Saliquastrum. Roeszl 214. 1550. Indianischer pfeffer. Trag. 928. 1552. Piper indicum Cam Epit. 347. 1586. Capsicum oblongius Dodonaei. Dalechamp 632. 1587. Piper indicum minus recurvis siliquis.Hort Eyst. 1613, 1713. Piper indicum maximum longum.Hort. Eyst. 1613, 1713 Capsicum recurvis siliquis. Dod. 716. 616. Piper Calecuticum, sive Capsicum oblongius. Bauh. J. 2: 943. 1650. Siliquastrum. Ind. pfeffer. Pancov. n. 296. 1673. Piper Capsicum. Chabr. 297. 1677. Piment de Cayenne. vilm. 151. 1885. Long Red Cayenne Ferry. Mexican Indian four varieties, one of the exact variety of Fuch. 1542. Siliquastrum majus. Fuch 732. 1542. Long Yellow Cayenne. Hend. capsicum longum luteum. Fingerhuth
(b) Fruits erect Capsicum annuum acuminatum. Fingerhuth. Piper ind. minimum erectum.Hort Eyst. 1613, 1713 Piper ind. medium longum eretum.Hort. Eyst. 1613, 1713 Piper longum minus siliquis recurvis. Jonston Dendrog 56. 1662. Pigment due Chili. Vilm 410. 1883. Chili pepper. Vilm 151. 1885 Red Cluster. Vilm. Yellow Chili. Hend
II.
CALYX PATERIFORM, NOT COVERING THE FLATTENED BASE OF THE FRUIT
CALYX FUNNEL-FORM, AS LARGE AS BASE; FRUIT MORE OR LESS IRREGULARLY SWOLLEN, NOT POINTED, PENDENT.
capsicum luteum. Lam. Fingerhuth. t. 8. Prince of Wales, of some seedsmen (yellow).
(Perhaps) Capsicum latum Dodanaei. Dalechamp. 632. 1587. Capsicum latis siliquis. Dod. 717. 1616. Capsicum siliquis latiore and rotundiore. Bauh. J. 2: 943. 1651 Piper capsicum siliqui latiori et rotundiore. Chabr. 297. 1677.
V.
CALYX SET IN CONCAVITY OF FRUIT.
The character perhaps results only from the swollen conditon of the fruit as produced by selection and culture. As, however, it appears constant in our seedmen's varities, it may answer oru purpose here.
(a) Fruit very much flattened. Piper indicum rotundum maximum.Hort. Eyst. 1613, 1713. Solanum mordeus, etc., Bonnet Pepper. Pluk. Phyt. t. 227, p. I. 1691. Capsicum tetragonum. Fingerhuth t. 10. Piment tomato. Vilm. 413. 1886. Red Tomato capsicum or America bonnet. Vilm. 154. 1885.
(b) Fruit squarish, angular, very much swollen, large.
This group includes the Bell, Sweet Mountain, Monstrous, and Spanish Mammoth of Vilmorin; the Giant Emperor, Golden Dawn, etCALLIGONUM of American seedsmen. The varieties of this class seem referable to Capsicum annuum rugulosum Fing., CALLIGONUM grossum pomiforme Fing. and CALLIGONUM angulosum. fing. but these have not yet beensufficiently studied.
Group V embraces the sweet peppers and none other. A sweet kind is noted by Acosta, 1604, and it is perhaps the rocot uchu of Peru, as mentioned by Garcilasso de la Vega. Sweet peppers are also referred to by Piso, 1648.
Occasionally Capsicum baccatum Linn. is grown, but the species is too southern for general use in the North. Its synonymy follows:
Capsicum, Piper indicum brevioribus siliquis. Lob. Obs. 172. 1576; Icon I: 317. 1591. Capsicum brasilianum. Dalechamp 633. 1587; Pancov. n. 297. 1673. Capsicum minimis siliquis. Ger. 292. 1597; Dod. 717. 1616.
Fig. 8. Piso De. Ind. 225. 1658. Peperis capsici varietas, siliqua parva, etc. Chabr. 297. 1677. Capsicum baccatum. Linn. Fingerhuth t. 4 Small Red Cayenne. Briggs Seed Cat. 1874.