112 ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS. 



The fine plate published by Sibthorp, Flora Grceca, 

 589, suggests that the species is worthy of more general 

 cultivation. 



Trigonel, or Fenugreek — Trigonella fcenum-gr cecum, 

 Linnseus. 



The cultivation of this annual leguminous plant was 

 common in ancient Greece and Italy/ either for spring 

 forage, or for the medicinal properties of its seeds. 

 Abandoned almost everywhere in Europe, and notably 

 in Greece,^ it is maintained in the East and in India,^ 

 where it is probably of very ancient date, and throughout 

 the Nile Valley.^ The species is wild in the Punjab 

 and in Kashmir,^ in the desei'ts of IMesopotamia and of 

 Persia,^ and in Asia Minor,'^ where, however, the localities 

 cited do not appear sufficiently distinct from the culti- 

 vated ground. It is also indicated ^ in several places in 

 Southern Europe, such as Mount Hymettus and other 

 localities in Greece, the hills above Bologna and Genoa, 

 and a few waste places in Spain ; but tlie further west 

 we go the more we find mentioned such localities as 

 fields, cultivated ground, etc. ; and careful authors do not 

 fail to note that the species has probably escaped from 

 cultivation.^ I do not hesitate to say that if a plant 

 of this nature were indigenous in Southern Europe, it 

 would be far more common, and would not be wanting to 

 the insular floras, such as those of Sicily, Ischia, and the 

 Balearic Isles.^*^ 



The antiquity of the species and of its use in India is 

 confirmed by the existence of several different names in 



' Tlieophrastus, J/fs^f. Plant., viii. c. 8; Colamella, De rei rustica, ii. 

 c. 10 ; Pliny, Hist., xviii. c. 16. 



^ Fraas, Syn. Fl. Class., p. 63 ; Lenz, Bot. der Alten, p. 719. 



^ Baker, in Hooker's Fl. Brit. Ind., ii. p. 57. 



* Schweinfurth, Bcitr. z. Fl. J^thiop., p. 258. 

 ' Baker, in Hooker's Fl. Brit. Ind. 



* Boissier, Fl. Orient, ii. p. 70. ' Boissier, Hid. 



® Sibthorp, Fl. Grceca, t. 766; Lenz, J5of. der Alten, Bertoloni, FL 

 Ital., viii. p. 250 ; Willkomm and Lange, Prodr. Fl. Hisp., iii. p. 390. 



^ Caruel, Fl. Tosc, p. 256 ; Willkomm and Lange. 



*" The plants which spread from one country to another introduce 

 themselves into islands with more difficulty, as will be seen from the re- 

 marks I formerly published Gcogr. Bot. Raisonnee, p. 706). 



