8oG ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS. 



anciently introduced into the south of Europe, the species 

 being of Syrian or north African origin. He maintains 

 as probahle the theory of Ha3fer and Bonne,^ that the 

 lotus of th3 lotophagi was the carob tree, of which the 

 flower is sweet and the fruit has a taste of honey, which 

 agrees with the expressions of Homer. The lotus-eaters 

 dwelt in Cyrenaica, so that the carob must have been 

 abundant in their country. If we admit this hypothesis 

 we must suppose that Pliny and Herodotus did not know 

 Homer's plant, ibr the one describes the lotos as bearing 

 a fruit like a mastic berry {Pistacia lentiscus), the other 

 as a deciduous tree.^ 



An hypothesis regarding a doubtful plant formerly 

 mentioned by a poet can hardly serv^e as the basis of 

 an argument upon facts of natural history. After all, 

 Homer's lotus plant perhaps existed only in the fabled 

 garden of Hesperides. I return to more serious argu- 

 ments, on which Bianca has said a few words. 



The carob has two names in ancient lancfuaofes — the 

 one Greek, keraunia or kerateia;^ the other Arabic, 

 ddrnnh or chai-ub. The first alludes to the form of the 

 pod, which is like a slightly curved horn ; the other means 

 merely pod, for we find in Ebn Baithar's ^ work that four 

 other leguminous plants bear the same name, with a quali- 

 fying epithet. The Latins had no special name ; they 

 used the Greek word, or the expression siliqiva, siliqua 

 grceca (Greek pod).^ This dearth of names is the sign of a 

 once restricted area, and of a culture which probably does 

 not date from prehistoric time. The Greek name is still 

 retained in Greece. The Arab name persists among the 

 Kabyles, who call the fiTiit IJiarrouh, the tree takhar- 

 roiit,^ and the Spaniards algarroho. Curiously enough, 



* Hoefer, Hist. Bot. Miner, et Geol., 1 vol. in 12mo, p. 20; Bonne, Le 

 Carouhier, on VArhre des Lotopharjes, Algiers, 18G9 (quoted by Uoefer). 

 See above, the article on the jujube tree. 



^ Pliny, Hist., lib. i. cap. 30. 



' Theophrastus, Hist. Plant., lib. i, cap. 11; Dioscoritles, lib. i. 

 cap. 155; Fraas, Syn. Fl. Class., p. 65. 



* Ebn Baithar, German trans., i. p. 354 ; Forskal, Fl. JE^ypt., p. 77. 



" Columna, quoted by Lenz, Bot. der Alten, p. 73 ; Pliny, Hid., 

 lib. xiii. cap. 8. 



* Did. Fran^'.-Berbere, at the Avord Carouhe. 



