10 THE SOY BEAN ; HISTORY, VARIETIES, AND FIELD STUDIES. 



regard as the best single character to separate G. soja from G. hispida, 

 but using this as a criterion G. soja is also a cultivated species. 



Among numerous lots of seeds received from India (S. P. I. Nos. 

 24672 to 24693, inclusive) representing seven varieties, there are at 

 least two (see Nos. 24675 and 24682) which have very small flowers, 

 3 mm. long, indistinguishable from those of the wild G. soja that we 

 have grown. Typical plants of Glycine soja obtained from the 

 Botanic Garden, Tokyo, Japan (S. P. I. No. 22428), and from 

 Soochow, Kiangsu, China (S. P. I. No. 25138), have been grown 

 three seasons. The India plants are coarser stemmed, less vining, 

 and bear somewhat larger pods and seeds, but the flowers are much 

 smaller than those of any variety of G. hispida and precisely like 

 those of G. soja. Other numbers from India are probably G. hispida, 

 but the flowers are somewhat smaller than the Japanese varieties 

 and the pods and seeds as small as any variety of G. hispida. It is 

 therefore apparent that both G. soja and G. hispida are cultivated 

 in parts of India, if we accept the flower character as decisive. This 

 fact makes it doubtful which of the two plants Linnseus named 

 Dolichos soja. There seems no good reason why G. hispida may not 

 have been derived from G. soja by cultivation, the smaller flowers 

 of the latter being the principal difficulty to explain. In all other 

 respects the two supposed species seem to merge completeh^. The 

 identity of the plant cultivated in India has been commented on by 

 Watt (Dictionary of the Economic Products of India, 1890, p. 509) 

 as follows: 



Reference having been made to the authorities of the Calcutta Herbarium on the 

 subject of G. soja, Sieb. et Zucc, being, as shown in the Flora of British India, a 

 native of this country, Dr. Prain kindly went into the subject very carefully. He 

 writes: "We have not, from any part of India, any specimens of G. soja proper. The 

 Khasi Hills plant is more erect, more hispid, and has larger legumes than the Him- 

 alayan, and indeed resembles G. hispida, Maxim., quite as much as it does the Indian 

 cultivated 'G. soja,' which, indeed, it connects with G. hispida. It is, in fact, the 

 plant most like the wild G. soja, S. et Z., which no one ever professes to have found 

 wild in India, while it is also the one most like G. hispida, Maxim, (which has never 

 been found wild anywhere). It is the plant collected by Dr. Watt and myself in the 

 Naga Hills." 



The writer noted on his Naga Hill specimens that they were found in a semiwild 

 state, and that the plant was known to the Angami Nagas as Tsu Dza, a name not 

 unlike soja. Throughout India, the soy bean is cultivated, black and white seeded 

 forms being met with, which vary to some extent, but all preserve the specific char- 

 acters of Cr. hispida. Plants raised at Saharunpur from Japanese seed have larger and 

 broader leaves than the usual Indian forms. The fact that this cultivated plant 

 possesses, even among the aboriginal tribes, names which are original, i. e., in no 

 way modern derivatives, points to an ancient cultivation, if, indeed, it may not be 

 accepted as an indication of its indigenous nature. (Editor.) 



Prain apparently does not apply the size of the flower as a critical 

 character. Applying this, however, two of the Indian varieties (see 



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