ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLAXTS. 353 



as having an erect stem, ternate leaves, white flowers, kidney- 

 shaped seeds, white, "except the umbilicus, which grows 

 black." It may be worth noting that " a black spot in the 

 place of the cotyledon " was a characteristic of the Faseoli 

 described by Albertus Magnus (13th cent.), which appears 

 to M. De Candolle " to be the dwarf Haricot {P. nanus} of 

 our epoch." This black spot is more strongly suggestive of 

 Dolichos than of any known variety of P. vulgaris: e. g. 

 Dolichos unguiculatus, L. (French, D. Mongettc, Banette, 

 Haricot cornille^) — not mentioned by M. De Candolle, but 

 much cultivated in Italy, and of which there are a great num- 

 ber of varieties — which has seeds " marked by a prominent 

 black spot about the umbilicus." * 



2. M. De Candolle (p. 272), with a reference to Delile and 

 to Piddington's " Index," remarks that though " no Hebrew 

 name corresponding to the Dolichos or Phaseolus of the bot- 

 anists " is known, yet " a name less ancient, because it is 

 Arabic, namely ' Loubia,' is found in Egypt for the Dolichos 

 Lubia; and in Hindustani, under the form 'Loba,' for Pha- 

 seolus vulgaris." This name seems to be clearly refei-able to 

 the Greek. It has not been traced earlier than to Jahia ebn 

 Serapion — an Arabian physician of the 9th or 10th century 

 — whose work "De Simplicibus," compiled chiefly f rom Dios- 

 corides and Galen, was translated into Latin in the loth cen- 

 tury. 2 In a chapter (lxxxi) on " Lubia," i. e. " Faseoli," he 

 quotes from Dioscorides the description of Smilax hortensis 

 (j0T?aLa <rixL\a£) " whose seeds some call Lobia ; " and it is 

 evident that the name Lubia (as it was transliterated from 

 the Arabic text by the translator) was transferred to the 



2G4), Phaseolus is figured as a low, bushy, and spreading, but not twining 

 plant. 



1 Several other species of Dolichos (e. g., D. sesquipedalis L., Ital. " Fag- 

 iuolo Sparagio," Engl. " Asparagus bean ") are similarly marked. Vil- 

 morin-Andrieux et Cie., " Les Plantes Potageres," 1883, p. 280. Other 

 names for this species are : Germ. " Ostindische Jtiesel-Spargel Bohne," 

 " Xagelische Fasel ; " Ital. " Fagiuolo dell' occhio ; " Span. " Garrubia," 

 "Moncheta," " Judia de Careta." 



2 Milan, 1473, and Venice, 1479 ; but better known to botanists of the 

 16th century in the Strasburg edition of 1531, edited by Otho Brunfels. 



