330 ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS. 



at Moosseedorf ; but he is less positive, and only gives 

 figures of the less a^ncient pea of St. Peter's Island. If 

 the species dates from the stone age in Switzerland, it 

 would be anterior to the immigration of the Aryans. 



There is no indication of the culture of Pisum sativum 

 in ancient Egypt or in India. On the other hand, it has 

 long been cultivated in the north of India, if it had, as 

 Piddington says, a Sanskrit name, harenso, and if it has 

 several names very different to this in modern Indian 

 lancruao^es.^ It has been introduced into China from 

 Western Asia. The Pent-sao, drawn up at the end of 

 the sixteenth century, calls it the Mahometan pea.^ In 

 conclusion : the species seems to have existed in Western 

 Asia, perhaps from the south of the Caucasus to Persia, 

 before it was cultivated. The Aryans introduced it into 

 Europe, but it perhaps existed in Northern India before 

 the arrival of the eastern Aryans. It no longer exists in 

 a wild state, and when it occurs in fields, half- wild, it is 

 not said to have a modified form so as to approach some 

 other species. 



Soy — Dolichos soja, Linnaeus ; Glycine soja, Bentham. 



This leguminous annual has been cultivated in China 

 and Japan from remote antiquity. This might be 

 gathered from the many uses of the soy bean and from 

 the immense number of varieties. But it is also supposed 

 to be one of the farinaceous substances called sku in 

 Chinese writings of Confucius' time, though the modern 

 name of the plant is ta-tou.^ The bean is nourishing, 

 and contains a large proportion of oil, and preparations 

 similar to butter, oil, and cheese are extracted from it and 

 used in Chinese and Japanese cooking.* Soy is also 

 grown in the Malay Archipelago, but at the end of the 

 eighteenth century it was still rare in Amboyna,^ and 

 Forster did not see it in the Pacific Isles at the time of 

 Cook's voyages. It is of modern introduction in India, 



* Piddington, Index. Eoxbnrgh does not give a Sanskrit name. 



2 Bretschneider, Study and Value, etc., p. 16. 



3 Ihid., p. 9. 



* See Pailleux, in Bull, de la Soc. d'Acclim., Sept. and Oct., 1880. 

 ^ Rnmphius, Amh., vol. v. p. 388. 



