58 MISCELLANEOUS PAPEKS. 



f)eople of upper India, where Persian influence is most pronounced." 

 The same author states that in all the districts of the northwest 

 provinces, with but one possible exception, the word lobiya is applied 

 to Vigna catjang. 



Although none of the Indian works consulted that m.ention lubiva 

 are of such ancient date as Dioscorides, they nevertheless indicate 

 the antiquity of its cultivation in India. Vigna catjang^ the species 

 with erect pods, is described and figured in Rheede, 1688 (Hort. 

 Malabar, 8:75. t. J^l)^ under the name paeru. It is interesting to 

 note that the root nodules were mentioned in this work, " The root 

 is slender, whitish, and fibrous, the fibers clothed with round globules." 

 Rheede described nine different preparations of the seed which were 

 used in medicine. Other bean-like plants occur in the same work 

 under the names putsja-paeru and catu-paeru, which indicates that 

 the jiaeru was better and probably longer known than the plants to 

 which compound names were given. In a work, Ain-i-Akbari or 

 Ayeen Akbery (Institutes of Uie Emperor Akbar), written in Persian 

 during the reign of the Emperor Akbar, 15.56-1605, describing the 

 crojDS grown in Delhi and Agra, translated by Francis Gladwin, 1783, 

 1 : 87, " lubya " is given as one of the crops of the autumnal harvest. 

 Sir George AVatt states that at the present time this would be Vigna 

 catjang, and in all probability^ would have been the same in Akbar's 

 time. Sir George Watt gives nearly 50 vernacular names in differ- 

 ent Indian languages, of which only four are compound words and 

 only four others consist of more than one word. One of the Sanskrit 

 names given by AVatt is nishpdva. In the Vishnu Purana, lib. 1, cap. 

 6, supposed to date from about 1045 A. D. (translation by Horace 

 Wilson, Complete Works, 6: 95), " Xishpava, a sort of pulse," is men- 

 tioned in the list of important grains. This work is five hundred 

 years later than the illustration in the Vienna Dioscorides Codex. 

 Nevertheless, Sanskrit for two thousand years or more has led an 

 artificial existence, being the means of communication and literary 

 expression of the priestly and learned castes, and the writer finds no 

 indication that the name nishpava has ever been applied to any other 

 plant. 



The species appear to be probably of less ancient cultivation in 

 China, for there is no indication of a Chinese introduction into India 

 or Persia, and it is improbable that the same species would be native 

 on both sides of such a natural barrier as the Himalayas. Neverthe- 

 less, Vigna unguiculata at least appears to have been long cultivated 

 in China. It is mentioned and illustrated in the second edition of the 

 Kiu Huang Pen Ts'ao, which appeared in 1559. In this work it is 

 called the " common bean," and other beans are compared with it. It 

 has not been practicable to consult the first edition of this work, pub- 



lOB— VI 



