PLANTS CULTIVATED FOR THEIR SEEDS. 329 



has published too little on the subject for us to be able 

 to conclude anything from it. He only says that, having 

 cultivated a great number of varieties both of the field 

 and garden pea, he concludes that they belong to the 

 same species. Darwin 1 learnt through a third person 

 that Andrew Knight had crossed the field-pea with a 

 garden variety known as the Prussian pea, and that the 

 product was fertile. This would certainly be a proof 

 of specific unity, but further observation and experi- 

 ment is required. In the mean time, in the search for 

 geographic origin, etc., I am obliged to consider the two 

 forms separately. 



Botanists who distinguish many species in the genus 

 Pisum, admit eight, all European or Asiatic. Pisum 

 sativum was cultivated by the Greeks in the time of 

 Theophrastus. 2 They called it pisos, or pison. The 

 Albanians, descendants of the Pelasgians, call it pizelle? 

 The Latins had pisum* This uniformity of nomencla- 

 ture seems to show that the Aryans knew the plant 

 when they arrived in Greece and Italy, and perhaps 

 brought it with them. Other Aryan languages have 

 several names for the generic sense of pea ; but it is 

 evident, from Adolphe Pictet's learned discussion on the 

 subject, 5 that none of these names can be applied to 

 Pisum sativum in particular. Even when one of the 

 modern languages, Slav or Breton, limits the sense to the 

 garden-pea, it is very probable that formerly the word 

 signified field-pea, lentil, or any other leguminous plant. 



The garden-pea 6 has been found among the remains 

 in the lake-dwellings of the age of bronze, in Switzerland 

 and Savoy. The seed is spherical, wherein it differs from 

 Pisum arvense. It is smaller than our modern pea. 

 Heer says he found it also among relics of the stone age, 



1 Darwin, Animals and Plants under Domestication, p. 326. 



2 Theophrastus, Hist., lib. viii. c. 3 and 5. 



3 Heldreich, Nutzpftanzen Griechenlands, p. 71. 



4 Pliny, Hist., lib. xviii. c. 7 and 12. This is certainly P. sativum, 

 for the author says it cannot bear the cold. 



5 Ad. Pictet, Origines Indo-Europe'ennes, edit. 2, vol. i. p. 359. 



6 Heer, Pftanzen der Pfahlbauten, xxiii. fig. 48 j Perriu, Etudes Pre". 

 historiques sur la Savoie, p. 22. 



