343 ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS. 



has ascertained to belong to the following species : broad 

 bean (Faba vulgaris), garden-pea (Fisum sativum), ervilla 

 (Ervum ervilia), and perhaps the flat-podded vetchling 

 (Lathyi'us Cicera), but no haricot. Nor has the species 

 been found in the lake-dwellings of Switzerland, Savoy, 

 Austria, and Italy. 



There are no proofs or signs of its existence in 

 ancient Egypt. No Hebrew name is known answering 

 to the Fhaseolus or Bolichos of botanists. A less ancient 

 name, for it is Arabic, loubia, exists in Egypt for •Dolichos 

 luhia, and in Hindustani as loba for Fhaseolus vulgaris} 

 As regards the latter species, Piddington only gives two 

 names in modern languages, and those both Hindustani, 

 loba and baJda. This, together with the absence of a 

 Sanskrit name, points to a recent introduction into 

 Southern Asia. Chinese authors do not mention F. 

 vulgaris,^ which is a further indication of a recent 

 introduction into India, and also into Bactriana, whence 

 the Chinese have imported plants from the second 

 century of our era. 



All these circumstances incline me to doubt whether 

 the species was known in Asia before the Christian era. 

 The argument based upon the modern Greek and Italian 

 names for the haricot, derived from fasiolos, needs some 

 support. It may be said in its favour that it was used 

 in the Middle Ages, probably for the common haricot. 

 In the list of vegetables which Charlemagne commanded 

 to be sown in his farms, we find fasiolum,^ without ex- 

 planation. Albertus Magnus describes under the name 

 faseolus a leguminous plant which appears to be our 

 dwarf haricot.* I notice, on the other hand, that writers 



' Delile, Planies CuUivies en £gypte, p. 14 ; Piddington, Index. 



' Bretschueider does not mention any, either in his pamphlet On the 

 Study and Value of Chinese Botanical Works, or in his private letters 

 to me. 



' B. Meyer, Qeschichte der Botanique, in. p. 404. 



' " Faseolus est species leguminis et grant, quod est in quantitate parum 

 minus quam Faha, et in figura est columnare sicut faba, herbaque ejus 

 minor est aliquantulum quam herba Fdbce. Et sunt faseoli multorum 

 colorwm, sed quodlibet granorum habet maculam nigram in loco cotyledonis" 

 (Jessen, Alberti Magni, De Tegetabilibus, edit, critics, p. 515). 



