PLANTS CULTIVATED FOR THEIR STEMS OR LEAVES. 109 



I have received specimens from the Cape and from 

 California. The species is certainly not indigenous in 

 the two last-named regions, but has escaped from cul- 

 tivation. 



The Romans sowed this plant both for the sake of the 

 seed and as fodder as early as the time of Cato.^ I have 

 discovered no proof of a more ancient cultivation. The 

 name vik, whence vicia, dates from a very remote epoch 

 in Europe, for it exists in Albanian,^ which is believed to 

 be the language of the Pelasgians, and among the Slav, 

 Swedish, and Germanic nations, with slight modifications. 

 This does not prove that the species was cultivated. It 

 is distinct enough and useful enough to herbivorous 

 animals to have received common names from the earliest 

 times. 



Flat-podded Pea — Lathyrus Cicera, Linnaeus. 



An annual leguminous plant, esteemed as fodder, but 

 whose seed, if used as food in any quantity, becomes 

 dangerous.^ 



It is grown in Italy under the name of 7)iocJd} Some 

 authors suspect that it is the cicera of Columella and the 

 ervilia of Varro,^ but the common Italian name is very 

 different to these. The species is not cultivated in Greece.^ 

 It is more or less grown in France and Spain, without 

 anything to show that its use dates from ancient times. 

 However, Wittmack'^ attributes to it, but doubtfully, 

 some seeds brought by Yirchow from the Trojan exca- 

 vations. 



According to the floras, it is evidently wild in dry 

 places, beyond the limits of cultivation in Spain and 

 Italy .^ It is also wild in Lower Egypt, according to 



* Cato, De re Rustica, edit. 1535, p. 34; Pliny, bk. xviii. c. 15. 



* Heldreicb, Nutzpflanzen Griechenlands, p. 71. In the earlier lan- 

 guage than the Indo-Europeans, vik beai's another meaning, that of 

 "hamlet" (Fick, Vorterb. Indo-Germ., p. 189). 



^ Vilmorin, Bon Jardinier, 1880, p. 603. 



* Targioni, Cenni Storici, p. 31 ; Bertoloni, Fl. Ital., vii. pp. 441, 447. 



* Lenz, Botanik. d. Alien, p. 730. 



' Fraas, Fl. Class.; Heldreich, Nutzjlanzen Griechenlands. 



^ Wittmack, Sitz. Ber. Bot. Vereins Bra7idenhurg, Dec. 19, 1879. 



* Willkomm and Lange, Prodr. Fl. Hisp., iii. p. 313 j Bertoloni, Fl. 

 [tal. 



