Tas. 7220. 
VICIA NARBONENSIS. 
Native of Hastern Europe and Western Asia. 
Nat. Ord. Leguminose#.—Tribe Viciex. 
Genus Vicia, Linn.; (Benth, et Hook. f. Gen. Pl. vol. i. p. 524.) 
Vicia narbonensis ; annua, robusta, glabra v. sparsim pilosa, caulibus 4-gonis 
angulis incrassatis, stipulis auriculeeformibus dentatis pectinatisve, foliis 
inferioribus uni-superioribus 2~4-jugis, rachi valida apice ramoso-cirrhifera, 
foliolis oblongis v. ovato v. oblongo-obovatis crassiusculis integris v. den- 
tatis nervis impressis, floribus 2-5in racemum brevem dispositis, calycis 
lobis subulato-lanceolatis recurvis, corolla calyce triplo Jongiore sordide 
rubra v. violacea striita, stylo infra apicem barbato, legumine late lineari 
compresso apice incurvo breviter rostrato, margine utroque setifero setis 
basi bulbosis, seminibus globosis v. oblongis Jevibus v. rugulosis. 
V. narbonensis, Linn. Sp. Pl. 737; DC. Prodr. vol. ii. p. 364; Koch, Synops. 
Fl, Germ, 215. 
V. serratifolia, Jacq. Fl. Austr. App. t. 8; Sturm, Flora Deutschi. vol. viii. 
t. 32. 
V. narbonensis e¢ serratifolia, Boiss. Fl. Orient. vol. ii. pp. 577, 578. 
The chief interest attaching to Vicia narbonensis rests in 
its having been supposed to be the origin of the common 
Bean (Vicia Faba, Linn. ; Faba vulgaris, Moench.). For this 
supposition the two weightiest arguments are (1) that the 
two plants belong to, and are the only species of one and 
the same section of Vicia; and (2) that V. Faba is said 
to have been found wild within the same area as that 
covered by V. narbonensis, viz. the desert of Mungan, in 
Mazanderan on the southern shores of the Caspian Sea, 
where it was collected by Lerche, a Russian traveller, 
whose specimen is preserved in the Herbarium of the St. 
Petersburgh Botanical Gardens. With regard to the first 
argument, it is much invalidated by the fact of the 
differences in almost every organ of the two species, 
especially in the strongly nerved, usually serrated leaflets 
of V. narbonensis, with many very spreading nerves and 
strongly reticulate nervules, and its flattened pods, 
which are remarkable for the little bristles with bulbous 
bases along both sutures; and of which bristles I find no 
traces in the cultivated V. Faba. On the other hand, 
Frepruary Ist, 1892. 
