A CLIMBING BEAN 



DOLICHOS 



LABLAB 



Sim 



relative indication as to the production of horse-gram, but in Bombay 

 the actual area was 545,738 acres. 



D.E.P., 

 iii., 183-90. 

 Lablab. 



Two Forms. 



Wild in India. 



Bengal. 



D. Lablab, Linn; Fl. Br. Ind., ii., 209; Koxb., FL Ind., iii., 

 305 ; Prain, Journ. As. Soc. Beng., Ixvi., pt. ii., 54, 429-30 ; Prain, Beng. 

 Plants, i., 390-1 ; Duthie, Fl. Upper Gang. Plain, 228-9 ; Cooke, Fl. Pres. 

 Bomb., i., 381. The sim, makhan-sim, sem, popat, borboti, gheea-sim, 

 panch-sim, lablab, urohi, uri, kechu, chimi, Jcatjang, pdvta, wall, vdl, pauti, 

 vdlpapri, mochai, bili manavare, mutcheh, alsanda, annapa, avare, pe-bya, 

 pe-bazon, pe-gyi, pe-lun, etc. 



Cultivated Forms. Wild and cultivated throughout India ; it ascends the 

 Himalaya to 6,000 or 7,000 feet in altitude. De Candolle (Orig. Cult. Plants, 

 346) says its culture dates perhaps from three thousand years, but that he can 

 find no trace of its being early diffused in China, Western Asia or Egypt. Hosie 

 (Rept. Prov. Ssu'ch'uan, China, 1904, 11) says it is called ssu chi tou (four- 

 seasons bean) because it is cultivated throughout the year. Henry (Econ. Bot. 

 China, 12) remarks that its Chinese name is pien-tou, and that there are two 

 varieties, one with purple, the other with white flowers. So also in India there 

 are two cultivated varieties, though these have not been distinguished in the 

 Flora British India. Prain defines them as follows : 



Var. Lablab proper ; pods longer, more tapering at point, seeds with long 

 axis parallel to the sutures. This is D. Lablab, Linn., Sp. PL, 1019; D. lignosus, 

 Roxb., Fl. Ind., iii., 305 (non Linn.). 



Var. lignosus (Linn, sp., non Roxb.); pods shorter, more abruptly truncated at 

 end, seeds with long axis at right angles to the sutures. Roxburgh, it will thus 

 be observed, reversed the incidence of the Linnsean names. 



Prain (Journ. As. Soc., I.e. 430) remarks that the epithet "lignosus" is much 

 more appropriate when applied to " Lablab " than when given to the plant to which 

 Linnaeus assigned it. " Roxburgh identifies with his ' Lablab' the plant figured 

 by Rumphius (Herb. Amb., v., t. 136), in an identification that is obviously just; 

 Linnaeus gives this very figure as one of the types of his . fij/uostes." 



History. Adams (Comment, in Paulus dUgineta, 1847, iii., 470) observes that 

 Serapion, on the authority of Aben Mesuai, describes the properties of a climb- 

 ing plant which he calls lebleb. Adams accordingly adds that there is every 

 reason to suppose the lebleb of Serapion and Avicenna was noitchos. De Candolle 

 (I.e. 347) gives, on the other hand, an account of the origin of the word lubia. 

 He remarks that it possibly comes from the Greek lobos, which means any pro- 

 jection, like the lobe of the ear, a fruit of the nature of a pod, etc. Asa Gray 

 (Scient. Papers, i., 353), reviewing De Candolle, comments that " the name 

 (lubia) seems to be clearly referable to the Greek. It has not been traced 

 earlier than to Jahia Ebn Serapion an Arabian physician of the 9th or 10th 

 century whose work ' De Simplicibus,' compiled chiefly from Dioscorides and 

 Galen, was translated into Latin in the 15th century." The word " lobiya (king 

 of beans) " occurs among the list of autumn (kharif) crops known to Akbar, and 

 lexicographers would seem to regard the word lubia as of Persian origin. At the 

 present day, in Upper India, it would appear to be applied to two plants, vignn and 

 Doiiciioti. Considering the time these plants come into season, it seems probable 

 that the lobiya, of the Ain-i-Akbari (Blochmann, transl., 63) was rig no, Cntjang 

 (p. 1107). I accordingly restrict the word lobiya to that plant ; and, if this be 

 correct, it is probable that none of the species of noiicJms, were known to the 

 Persian writers of classic times. Moreover, no species of Doiicho* would seem to 

 have the properties attributed to the lebleb of the Arab writers. This reasoning 

 would accordingly assign to the species of i>oiictio* an indian origin, an opinion 

 confirmed by the fact that both D. iiiflorus and />. -tftft are met with as wild 

 species, the cultivated races of which bear many purely indigenous names. In the 

 Taleef Shereef (I.e. 147) " Lobeia " is mentioned as a common culinary grain. 



CULTIVATION. Bengal and Assam. Lablab is not a regular agricul- 

 tural crop in any part of India. It is more correctly speaking a garden 

 plant, and is trained to form arbours over the doorways of village huts. 

 For example, the Director of Land Records and Agriculture says that 

 different varieties are cultivated all over Bengal as garden vegetables. The 

 Eev. Dr. A. Campbell tells us of Chota Nagpur that it is largely cultivated 



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