LEGUMINOUS PLANTS. 411 



LEGUMINOUS PLANTS. 



VII. 



The introduced clovers, vetches and other vines of modern agriculture 

 have already been fully considered, botanically and economically. 



The connection of this family of phoenogamous plants with the econ- 

 omy of agricultural nations, is coeval with the culture of the cereals. 

 Besides the frequent mention made of them in the remotest periods of 

 Biblical literature, we also know from Papyrus rolls and stone engrav- 

 ings of ancient Egypt, several facts relating to them. Lentils, (Ervum 

 Lens,) has been there a favorite dish with the people, and remained so to 

 the present day. On Sculptures servants are represented carrying bas- 

 kets filled with Indigo, being either tribute or precious merchandise, 

 which came from India. Carobs, or St. John's bread, furnished an im- 

 portant food supply, not only in Egypt, but also in Syria and Palestine. 

 The name Carat is derived from the Carob seeds, serving a standard 

 weight, equal to about 20 grains of wheat, one grain of which was the 

 gmallest standard weight then in use for weighing gold and precious 

 stones. Carobs are the fruit of a tree (Ceratonia Siliqua,) much re- 

 sembling our honey locust. 



Beans (Faba vulgaris) and the Chick pea (Cicer Arietinuin) were large- 

 ly consumed by the lower classes. It is doubtful whether the avoidance 

 of Beans, practiced by the priest^ and so strictly forbidden by Pythag- 

 oras to his disciples, applies to the leguminous species or the seeds of 

 Nelumbium speciosuni, the Water Lily, which then grew abundantly 



