110 ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS. 



Schweinfurth and Ascherson ;^ but there is no trace of 

 ancient cultivation in this country or among the Hebrews. 

 Towards the East its wild character becomes less certain. 

 Boissier indicates the plant " in cultivated ground from 

 Turkey in Europe, and Egypt as far as the south of the 

 Caucasus and Babylon."^ It is not mentioned in India 

 either as wild or cultivated, and has no Sanskrit name.^ 



The species is probably a native of the region com- 

 prised between Spain and Greece, perhaps also of Algeria,** 

 and diffused by a cultivation, not of very ancient date, 

 over Western Asia. 



Chickling Vetch — Lathyrus sativus, Linnseus. 



An annual leguminous plant, cultivated in the South 

 of Europe, from a very early age, as fodder, and also for 

 the seeds. The Greeks called it lathyros ^ and the Latins 

 cicercula.^ It is also cultivated in the temperate regions 

 of Western Asia, and even in the north of India ; "^ but it 

 has no Hebrew^ nor Sanskrit name,^ which argues a 

 not very ancient cultivation in these regions. 



Nearly all the floras of the south of Europe and of 

 Algeria give the plant as cultivated and half- wild, rarely 

 and only in a few localities as truly wild. It is easy to 

 understand the difficulty of recognizing the wild character 

 of a species often mixed with cereals, and which persists 

 and spreads itself after cultivation. Heldreich does not 

 allow that it is indigenous in Greece.-^^ This is a strong 

 presumption that in the rest of Europe and in Algeria the 

 plant has escaped from cultivation. 



It is probable that this was not the case in Western 

 Asia ; for authors cite sufficiently wild localities, where 

 agriculture plays a less considerable part than in Europe. 



• Schweinfnrth and Ascherson, Aufzdhlung, etc., p. 257. 



• Boissier, Fl. Orient., ii. p. 605. 



• J. Baker, in Hooker's Fl. of Brit. Ind. 



• Munby, Catal. 



• Theophrastus, Hist. Plant., viii., c. 2, 10. 



• Columella, De rei rustica, ii. c. 10; Pliny, xviii. c. 13, 32. 

 » Roxburgh, Fl Ind. ; Hooker, Fl. Brii. Ind., ii. p. 178. 



• Rosenmiiller, Handh. Bihl. Alterth., vol. i. 



• Piddington, Index. 



*• Heldreich, Pflanz. d. Attisch. Ehene, p. 476 ; Nutzpf. Or., p. 72. 



