STURTEVANT S NOTES ON EDIBLE PLANTS 593 



to make it easy to grow it as an annual green crop. Johnson ' says the seeds may be 

 used as food. 



V. ervilia Willd. 



North Africa and Europe. This vetch, according to Loudon,^ is cultivated in some 

 places as a lentil. This vetch is cultivated by the French. 



V. faba Linn, broad bean. English bean. European bean, horse bean. Windsor 



BEAN. 



Europe and Asia. The Etiropean bean appears to be among the most ancient of 

 our cultivated esculents. A variety has been found in the lacustrine deposits of Switzer- 

 land ascribed to the Bronze Age. It was cultivated by the ancient Greeks and Romans, 

 by the Hebrews and by the ancient Egyptians, although it is not among the seeds found 

 in the catacombs, perhaps, De Candolle ' remarks, because it was reported unworthy for 

 the nourishment of priests, or certain priests, or from motives of superstition. Hero- 

 dotus * states that the priests in Egypt held beans in such aversion that none were sown 

 throughout the land; if by chance a single plant anywhere sprang up, they turned 

 away their eyes from it as from an impiare thing. Wilkinson * remarks that this state- 

 ment applied, apparently, only to the priests for the people were allowed to eat these 

 beans. 



Pythagoras is said to have eaten beans very frequently, but his disciples seem to have 

 forbidden their eating, and it is related that their aversion was carried to such an extent 

 that a party of Pythagoreans allowed themselves to be slaughtered by the soldiers of 

 Dionysius rather than to escape by passing through a field of these vegetables.^ Por- 

 phyrus says, " take the flowers of the bean when they begin to grow black, put them in 

 a vessel and bury it in the ground; at the end of ninety days, when it is opened, the head 

 of a child will be found in the bottom." '' Diogenes Laertius says, " beans are the 

 substance which contains the largest portion of that animated matter of which our 

 souls are particles." * One of the noble families of Rome, the Fabii, derived their 

 name from this plant, and the Romans had a solemn feast called Fabaria, at which 

 they offered beans in honor of Cama, the wife of Janus. At one time, the Romans 

 believed the souls of such as had died resided in beans and Clemens Alexandrinus, and 

 even Cicero, entertained equally extravagant notions of them. The Flamen Dialis were 

 not permitted to mention the name, and Lucian represents a philosopher in Hades as 

 saying that to eat beans and to eat one's father's head were equal crimes.' A temple 

 dedicated to the God of Beans, Kyanites, stood upon the sacred road to Elensis, and the 



1 Johnson, C. P. Useful Pis. Gt. Brit. 81. 1862. 



' Loudon, J. C. Enc. Agr. 843. 1866. 



' De Candolle, A. Geog. Bot. 2:956. 1855. (Faba vulgaris) 



Barthelemy, J. J. Voy. Anacharsis Greece 6:2. 1825. 

 'Wilkinson, J. G. Anc. Egypt. 1:323. 1854. 



Barthelemy, J. J. Voy. Anacharsis Greece 6:2, 3, 4. 1825. 

 ' Barthelemy, J. J. Voy. Afiacharsis Greece 5:^66. 1825. 



> Ibid. 



Mcintosh, C. Book Card. 2:62. 1855. (Faba vulgaris) 



