244 THE LENTIL CROP. 



for potatoes, especially for the winter season, when other 

 vegetables could only be procured at a price beyond the 

 ordinary means of the labouring classes. The trials that 

 were made, though upon a somewhat limited scale, were 

 very satisfactory, and the crop was found sufficiently 

 hardy to admit of cultivation even in the neighbourhood 

 of Edinburgh. 1 



Botanically, the lentil belongs to the order LEGUMI- 

 NOS^E, and forms the genus ERVUM, of which there are 

 numerous species, two of which, the E. hirsutum and E. 

 tetraspermum, are indigenous to this ; the others to the 

 warmer countries of the Continent. The lentil very much 

 resembles the vetch in its general characters, and is best 

 distinguished from it by the long teeth of the calyx, which 

 is equally narrowed to the base, and not protuberant at 

 the base on the upper side. The following species are 

 those chiefly met with in cultivation: 



Ervum lens Common Lentil. A vetch-like annual 

 plant, with from eight to twelve oblong, blunt, nearly 

 smooth leaflets to each leaf, which is terminated by a 

 very short tendril. The flowers are small, pale blue 

 in colour, in pairs, on long slender stalks. The calyx 

 is divided, almost to the base, into five awl -shaped 

 hairy teeth, as long as the corolla. The pods are quite 

 smooth, short, and thin, and contain two seeds, of a 

 flattened spherical shape, varying in colour from white to 

 deep brown. It grows to the height of from 18 to 24 

 inches, and, owing to its erect branching habit, requires 

 no support from other plants. 



Ervum monanthos Single-flowered Lentil is a species 

 which has been cultivated in France with great success 

 on sandy soils of the poorest class, where it is sown in 

 the autumn with a little rye or winter oats. M. Vil- 

 morin, who speaks of it in the highest terms, distinctly 



* High. Soc. Tram., 1851, p. 337. 



