ORIGIN OF THE CULTIVATED LEGUMES 265 



Vetches were sown by the Romans, as they are now by the 

 English, as cattle food, but there is no evidence of ancient 

 cultivation. 



The lupine (Lupinus albus). This legume was cultivated by the 

 ancient Greeks and Romans as cattle food, but, though it grows 

 wild in many varieties in various parts of the world, including 

 our own country, it has not been largely brought into use, and 

 now it shows every sign of passing out of cultivation. 1 



The soy bean (Dolichos soja). This is a new crop to the west- 

 ern world ; indeed, its introduction is but just being effected. 

 It came to us from Japan, where, as in China, it has been culti- 

 vated from the remotest antiquity for human food. It is certainly 

 wild in Japan and most likely also in the regions to the south, 

 where related species flourish even in the island of Java. The 

 crop is commonly called the soja, or soy bean, but it more closely 

 resembles the pea, while the so-called cowpea is more like a 

 bean. With us the crop is used exclusively for stock food, both 

 grain and forage being useful. 



The cowpea (Dolichos chinensis). This and the above species 

 are giving the botanists much trouble. They are here put into 

 the same genus, but they are being moved about so much, some- 

 times together and sometimes separated, that it is difficult to 

 keep track of them. There perhaps is a growing disposition to 

 separate them, but they are here put in the same genus awaiting 

 the final decision of the botanists. 



All this, however, does not concern us now further than 

 to show that lines on which classification is based are often 



1 The student can hardly realize how rapidly species are recovered from the 

 wild, cultivated for a time, and then abandoned for something better or at least 

 for something else. Thus Darwin tells us, " Animals and Plants under Domes- 

 tication," Vol. I, p. 336, quoting Heer, that the wheat of the lake dwellers in the 

 early stone age was a small-headed variety with grains not half the size of 

 modern wheat. This lasted down to the " Helvetico-Roman age and then 

 became extinct," giving place to better races in turn, up to the latest improved 

 and best yielding varieties. It appears, too, that in general these ancient grains 

 were inferior to the modern, whether wheat, barley, oats, or what not, and that 

 with cultivation has been associated a steadily progressive development. 



