110 OEIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS 



Scliweinfurth and Ascherson ; ^ but there is no trace of 

 ancient cultivation in this country or among the Hebrews. 

 Towards the East its wild character becomes less certain. 

 Boissier indicates the plant " in cultivated ground from 

 Turkey in Europe, and Egypt as far as the south of the 

 Caucasus and Babylon."* It is not mentioned in India 

 either as wild or cultivated, and has no Sanskrit name.' 



Tlie species is probably a native of the region com- 

 ])rised between Spain and Greece, perhaps also of Algeria,* 

 and diffused by a cultivation, not of very ancient date, 

 over Western Asia. 



Chickling Vetch — Lathyrus sativus, Linnreus. 



An annual leguminous plant, cultivated in the South 

 of Europe, from a very early age, as fodder, and also for 

 the seeds. The Greeks called it lathyros ^ and the Latins 

 cioercida.^ It is also cultivated in the temperate regions 

 of Western Asia, and even in the north of India ; '' but it 

 has no Hebrew^ nor Sanskrit name," which argues a 

 not very ancient cultivation in these regions. 



Nearly all the floras of the south of Europe and of 

 Algeria give the plant as cultivated and half- wild, rarely 

 and only in a few localities as truly wild. It is easy to 

 understand the difficulty of recognizing the wild character 

 of a species often mixed with cereals, and which persists 

 and spreads itself after cultivation. Heldreich does not 

 allow that it is indigenous in Greece.^" This is a strong 

 presumption that in thereat of Europe and in Algeria the 

 plant has escaped from cultivation. 



It is probable tliat this was not the case in Western 

 Asia ; for authors cite sufficiently wild localities, where 

 agriculture plays a less considerable part than in Europe. 



' Sohweinfnrlh and Asoheraon, AvfziiHung, etc., p. 257. 



' Boissier, Fl. Orient., ii. p. 605. 



" J. Baker, in Hooker's Fl. of Brit. Ind. 



' Manby, Oatal. 



" Theophraatua, Hist. Plant., viii., o. 2, 10. 



" Columella, De rei rnntica, ii. c. 10; I'liiiy, xvili. o. 18 32. 



» Koxburgli, n. Ind. ; Hooker, Ft. Brit. Ind., ii. p. 178.' 



• Bosenmiiller, Handb. Bibl. Altcrlh., vol. i. 



• Piddington, Index. 



"> Holdreich, Pflam. d. Attisch. Ebene, p. 476 j Nuizpf. dr., p. 72. 



