334 OBIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS. 



indicated on the mountain of Magelang, Java ; * but, sup- 

 posing this to be a true and ancient wild growth in both 

 eases, it would be very extraordinary not to find the 

 species in many other Asiatic localities. 



The abundance of Indian and Malay names ^ shows 

 a somewhat ancient cultivation. Piddington even gives 

 a Sanskrit name, arhuku, which was not known to Kox- 

 burgh, but he gives no proof in support of his assertion. 

 The name may have been merely supposed from the 

 Hindu and Bengali names urur and oral. No Semitic 

 name is known. 



In Africa the cajan is often found from Zanzibar to 

 the coast of Guinea.* Authors say it is cultivated, or 

 else make no statement on this head, which would seem 

 to show that the specimens are sometimes wild. In 

 Egypt this cultivation is quite modem, of the nineteenth 

 century.* 



Briefly, then, I doubt that the species is really wild 

 in Asia, and that it has been grown there for more than 

 three thousand years. If more ancient peoples had known 

 it, it would have come to the knowledge of the Arabs and 

 Egyptians before our time. In tropical Africa, on the 

 contrary, it is possible that it has existed wild or culti- 

 vated for a very long time, and that it was introduced 

 into Asia by ancient travellers trading between Zanzibar 

 and India or Ceylon. 



The genus Cajanus has only one species, so that no 

 analogy of geographical distribution leads us to believe it 

 to be rather of Asiatic than African origin, or vice versd, 



Carob Tree ^ — Geratonia siliqua, Linnseus. 



The seeds and pods of the carob are highly prized in 

 the hotter parts of the Mediterranean basin, as food for 

 animals and even for man. De Gasparin ^ has given in- 



' Jnnghnhn, Plantw Jimgh., {asc. i. p. 241. 

 ' Piddington, Index; Bheede, Malab., vi. p. 23, etc. 

 » Pickeffing, Chron. Arrang. of Plants, p. 442 ; Peters, Reise, p. 36 1 

 E. Brown, Bot. of Congo, p. 53 ; Oliver, Fl. of Trop. Afr., ii. p. 216. 



* Sulletvn de la Sociiti d' Acclimation, 1871, p. 663. 



* The species is given here in order not to separate it from the other 

 legaminons plants cultivated for the seeds alone. 



* De Gasparin, Oours. d'Agnc, iv. p. 328. 



