426 sturtevant's notes on edible plants 



the Phaseolxis of the ancients were now called by all lobos, and by some tnelax kepea. 

 This word lobos of Aetius is recognizable in the Arabic loubia,^ applied to Dolichos lubia 

 Forsk., a bean with low stalks, the seed ovoid, white, with a black point at the eye. 



From these and other clues to be gleaned here and there from the Greek authors, 

 one is disposed to think that the low bean of the ancients was a Dolichos, and that the 

 word phaselus referred to this bean whenever used throughout the Middle Ages in speak- 

 ing of a field crop. 



The Roman references to Phaseolus all refer to a low-growing bean fitted for field 

 culture and so used. There is no clear indication to be found of garden culture. Aetius 

 se^ms the first among the Greeks to refer to a garden sort, for he says the lobos are the 

 only kind in which the pod is eaten with the bean; and, he says, this lobos is called by 

 some tnelax kepea (Smilax hortensis), the Dolichos and Phaseolus of his predecessors. 

 Galen's use of the word lobos, or the pod plant, wovdd hence imply garden culture in 

 Greece in the second century. 



The word loubion is applied by the modem Greeks to Phaseolus vulgaris, as is also 

 the word loba in Hindustani. The word lubia is used by the Berbers, and in Spain the 

 form alubia, for Phaseolus vulgaris.^ The words fagiuolo in Italian, phaseole in French, 

 are also used for this species. It is so ea.sy for a name used in a specific sense to remain 

 while the forms change, as is illustrated by the word squash in America, that we may 

 interpret these names to refer to the common form of their time, to a Dolichos (even now 

 in some of its varieties called a bean) in ancient times and to a Phaseolus now. 



Theophrastus ' says the dolichos is a climber, bears seeds and is not a desirable vege- 

 table. The word dolichos seems to be used in a generic sense. There is no other mention 

 of a climber by the ancient authors. The dolichos of Galen is the faselus of the Latins 

 for he says that some friends of his had seen the dolichos (a name not then introduced in 

 Rome) growing in fields about Caria, in Italy. We may, therefore, be reasonably certain 

 that the pole beans which were so common in the sixteenth century were not then cultivated. 



The English name, kidney beans, is derived, evidently, from the shape of the seed. 

 Turner, 1551, uses the name first, but these beans were not generally grown in England 

 until quite recent times. Parkinson, 1629, speaks of them as oftener on rich men's tables; 

 and Worlidge, 1683, says that within the memory of man they were a great rarity, although 

 now a common, delicate food. The French word haricot, applied to this plant, occurs 

 in Quintyne,* 1693, who calls them aricos in one place, and haricauts in another. The 

 word does not occur in Le Jardinier Solitaire, 1612, and Champlain,* 1605, uses the term 

 febues du Brisil, indicating he knew no vernacular name of closer application. De Can- 

 doUe * says the word araco is Italian and was originally used for Lathyrus ochrus; it is 

 apparently thus used by Oribasius and Galen. 



The two species of Linnaeus, Phaseolus vulgaris and P. nanus, correspond to the 



Delile, A. R. Mem. Pis. Cull. Egypt. 24. 1824. 

 De CandoUe, A. Orig. Cult. Pis. 341. 1885. 

 ' Theophrastus ffii/. P/. Bodaeus Ed. 914. 1644. 

 'Quintyne Comp. Card. 142, 185. 1693. 

 'Champlain Koy. Prince Soc. Ed. 64. 1878. 

 De CandoUe, A. Orig. Cult. Pis. 343. 1885. 



