PLANTS CULTIVATED FOR THEIR SEEDS. 347 



Lubia — Dolichos Luhia, Forskal. 



This species, cultivated in Europe under the name of 

 luhia, louhya, louhye, according to Forskal and Delile/ 

 is little known to botanists. According to the latter 

 author it exists also in Syria, Persia, and India ; but I 

 do not find this in any way confirmed in modern works 

 on these two countries. Schweinfurth and Ascherson^ 

 admit it as a distinct species, cultivated in the Nile 

 V^alley. Hitherto no one has found it wild. No Dolichos 

 or Phaseolus is known in the monuments of ancient 

 Egj^pt. We shall see from the evidence of the common 

 names that these plants were yjrobably introduced into 

 Egyptian agriculture after the time of the Pharaohs. 



The name liihia is used by the Berbers, unchanged, 

 and by the Spaniards as aluhia for the common haiicot, 

 Phaseolus vulgaris. Although Phaseolus and Dolichos 

 are very similar, this is an example of the little value of 

 common names as a proof of species. Loha is, as we 

 have seen, one of the Hindustani names for Phaseolus 

 vulgaris^ and lohia that of Dolichos sinensis in the same 

 lanofuao^e.'* Orientalists should tell us whether luhia is an 

 old word in Semitic lano-uao-es. I do not find a similar 

 name in Hebrew and it is possible that the Armenians or 

 the Arabs took luhia from the Greek lohos (XojSoc), which 

 means any B^ojection, like the lobe of the ear, a fruit of 

 the natur^C»f a poci, and more particularly, according to 

 Galen, iVi. vulgaris. Lohion (Xof^iov) in Dioscorides is 

 the fruit of Ph. vulgaris, at least in the opinion of com- 

 mentators.^ It remains as louhion in modern Greek, with 

 the same meaning.^ 



Bambarra Ground Nut — Glycine suhterrccnea, Lmneeus, 

 junr. ; Voandzeia suhterranea, Petit Thouars. 



^ Forskal, Descript., p. 133; Delile, Plant. Cult, en £gypte, p. 14. 



^ Sch^veinf^lrth and Ascherson, AiifzcMung, p. 256, 



^ Bid. Franc. -Berhere, at the -word haricot; Willkomm and Lange, 

 Prod. Fl. Hisp., iii. p. 324. The common haricot has no less than five 

 different names in the Iberian peninsula. 



^ Piddington, Index. 



* Lenz, Bot. der Alt. Gr. und Rom., p. 732. 



^ Langkavel, Bot. der Spdteren Griechen, p. 4 ; Heldreich, Nutzpji. 

 Griechenl., p. 72. 



