PLANTS CULTIVATED FOR THEIR SEEDS. 347 



Lubia Dolichos Lubia, Forskal. 



This species, cultivated in Europe under the name of 

 lubia, loubya, loubye, according to Forskal and Delile, 1 

 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 2 

 admit it as a distinct species, cultivated in the Nile 

 Valley. Hitherto no one has found it wild. No Dolichos 

 or Phaseolus is known in the monuments of ancient 

 Egypt. We shall see from the evidence of the common 

 names that these plants were probably introduced into 

 Egyptian agriculture after the time of the Pharaohs. 



The name lubia is used by the Berbers, unchanged, 

 and by the Spaniards as alub'ia for the common haricot, 

 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. Loba is, as we 

 have seen, one of the Hindustani names for Phaseolus 

 vulgaris, 3 and lobia that of Dolichos sinensis in the same 

 language. 4 Orientalists should tell us whether lubia is an 

 old word in Semitic languages. I do not find a similar 

 name in Hebrew, and it is possible that the Armenians or 

 the Arabs took lubia from the Greek lobos (XojSoe), which 

 means any projection, like the lobe of the ear, a fruit of 

 the nature of a pod, and more particularly, according to 

 Galen, Ph. vulgaris. Lobion (XojStov) in Dioscorides is 

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

 mentators. 5 It remains as loubion in modern Greek, with 

 the same meaning. 6 



Bambarra Ground Nut Glycine subterranea, Linnaeus, 

 junr. ; Voandzeia subterranea, Petit Thouars. 



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



Schweinfurth and Ascherson, Aufzahlung, p. 256. 



Diet. Franq.-Ber'bere, at the word haricot; Willkomm and Lange, 

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

 diff rent names in the Iberian peninsula. 



Piddington, Index. 



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



Langkavel, Bot. der Spateren Griechen, p. 4 ; Heldreich, Nutzpfl. 

 Griechenl., p. 72. 



