340 ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS. 



has ascertained to belong to the following species : broad 

 bean (Faba vulgaris), garden-pea (Pisum sativum), ervilla 

 (Ervum ervilia), and perhaps the flat-podded vetchling 

 (Lathyrus Cicero), but no haricot. Nor has the species 

 been found in the lake-dwellings of Switzerland, Savoy, 

 Austria, and Italy. 



There are no proofs or signs of its existence in 

 ancient Egypt. No Hebrew name is known answering 

 to the Phaseolus or Dolichos of botanists. A less ancient 

 name, for it is Arabic, loubia, exists in Egypt for Dolichos 

 lubia, and in Hindustani as loba for Phaseolus vulgaris. 1 

 As regards the latter species, Piddington only gives two 

 names in modern languages, and those both Hindustani, 

 loba and bakla. This, together with the absence of a 

 Sanskrit name, points to a recent introduction into 

 Southern Asia. Chinese authors do not mention P. 

 vulgaris, 2 which is a further indication of a recent 

 introduction into India, and also into Bactriana, whence 

 the Chinese have imported plants from the second 

 century of our era. 



All these circumstances incline me to doubt whether 

 the species was known in Asia before the Christian era. 

 The argument based upon the modern Greek and Italian 

 names for the haricot, derived from fasiolos, needs some 

 support. It may be said in its favour that it was used 

 in the Middle Ages, probably for the common haricot 

 In the list of vegetables which Charlemagne commanded 

 to be sown in his farms, we find faswlum* without ex- 

 planation. Albertus Magnus describes under the name 

 faseolus a leguminous plant which appears to be our 

 dwarf haricot. 4 I notice, on the other hand, that writers 



1 Delile, Plantes Cultivees en gypte, p. 14 ; Piddington, Index. 



2 Bretschneider does not mention any, either in his pamphlet On the 

 Study and Value of Chinese Botanical Works, or in his private letters 

 to me. 



3 E. Meyer, Geschichte der Botanique, iii. p. 404. 



4 " Faseolus est species leguminis et grani, quod est in quantitate parum 

 minus quam Faba, et in figura est columnare sicut /aba, herbaque ejus 

 minor est aliquantulum quam herba Fabce. Et sunt faseoli multorum 

 colorum, sed quodlibet granorum habet maculam nigram in loco cotyledonis" 

 (.lessen, Alberti Magni, De Vegftabilibus, edit, critica, p. 515). 



