324 ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS. 



grounds. It has sometimes^ been indicated in the 

 Crimea, and to the north, and especially to the south of 

 the Caucasus, as nearly wihl ; but well-informed modem 

 authors do not think so.^ This qnasi-wildness can only 

 point to its origin in Armenia and the neighbouiing 

 countries. The cultivation and the names of the speci- s 

 may perhaps throw some light on the question. 



The Greeks cultivated this species of pea as early as 

 Homer's time, imder the name of erehinthos,^ and also of 

 krios,^ from the resemblance of the pea to the head of a 

 ram. The Latins called it cicer, which is the origin of 

 all the modern names in the south of Europe. The 

 name exists also among the Albanians, descendants of the 

 Pelasgians, under the form Jcikere.^ The existence of 

 such widely different names shows that the plant was 

 very early known, and perhaps indigenous, in the south- 

 east of Europe. 



The chick-pea has not been found in the lake-dwell- 

 ings of Switzerland, Savo}^, and Italy. In the fiist- 

 named locality its absence is not singular ; the climate i 

 not hot enough. A common name among the peoples ui 

 the south of the Caucasus and of the Caspian Sea is, in 

 G eor gmn, nachuda ; in Turkish and Armenian, 7i«cAi^/s\ 

 nachunt; in Persian, nochot^ Philologists can tell if thi ^ 

 is a very ancient name, and if it has any connection witli 

 the Sanskrit chennuka. 



The chick-pea is so frequently cultivated in Egypt 

 from the earliest times of the Christian era,'' that it i« 

 supposed to have been also known to the ancient 

 Egyptians. There is no proof to be found in the draw- 

 ings or stores of grain in their monuments, but it may be 

 supposed that this pea, like the bean and the lentil, wa..- 



* Ledebour, Fl. Ross., i. p. 660, according to Pallas, Falk, and Kocb. 

 ^ Boissier, J^. Orient, ii. p. 560; Steven, Verzeichniss des Tauriac'hen 



Ilahlinseln, p. 134. 



2 Iliad, bk. 13, verse 589 ; Theophrastns, Hist., lib. viii. c. 3. 



* Dioscorides, lib. ii. c. 126. 



^ Heldreich, Nutzpfianzen Griechenlands, p. 71. 



* Nemnich, Polyglott. Lev., i. p. 1037 ; Bunge, in Goehels Hei^e, ii. p. 

 328. 



* Clement d'Alexandrie, Strom., lib. i., quoted from Reynier, /-con. da 

 E'jyp. et Carthag., p. 343. 



