324 OEIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS. 



grounds. It has sometimes^ been indicated in the 

 Crimea, and to the north, and especially to the south of 

 the Caucasus, as nearly wild ; but well-informed modern 

 authors do not think so.^ . This quasi- wildness can only 

 point to its origin in Armenia and the neighbouring 

 countries. The cultivation and the names of the species 

 may perhaps throw some light on the question. 



The Greeks cultivated this species of pea as early as 

 Homer's time, under the name of erebinthos,^ and also of 

 Icrios,^ from the resemblance of the pea to the head of a 

 ram. The Latins called it cicer, which is the origin of 

 all the modern names in the south of Europe. The 

 name exists also among the Albanians, descendants of the 

 Pelasgians, under the form Idkere.^ The existence of 

 such widely different names shows that the plant was 

 very early known, and perhaps indigenous, in the south- 

 east of Etu"ope. 



The chick-pea has not been found in the lake-dwell- 

 ings of Switzerland, Savoy, and Italy. In the first- 

 named locality its absence is not singular ; the climate is 

 not hot enough. A common name among the peoples of 

 the south of the Caucasus and of the Caspian Sea is, in 

 Georgian, nachuda ; in Turkish and Armenian, nachius, 

 VMchunt; in Persian, nochot.^ Philologists can tell if this 

 is a very ancient name, and if it has any connection with 

 the Sanskrit cftennvJca. 



The chick-pea is so frequently cultivated in Egypt 

 from the earliest times of the Christian era,' that it is 

 supposed to have been also known to the ancient 

 Egyptians. There is no proof to be found in the draw- 

 ings or stores of grain in their monuments, but it may be 

 supposed that this pea, like the bean and the lentil, was 



' Ledebour, I'l. Ross., i. p. 660, according to Pallas, Falk, and KooVi. 



^ Boissier, Fl. Orient., ii. p. 560; Steven, YerzeichnUs des TauHschen 

 Ilablinseln, p. 134. 



' Iliad, bk. 13, verse 589 ; Theophrastus, Hist., lib. viii. c. 3. 



' Dioscorldes, lib. ii. u. 126. 



■■ Heldreich, Nutzpflanzen Griechenlands, p. 71. 



° Nemnioh, Polyrjlott. Lex., i. p. 1037 ; Bunge, in Goehels Reise, ii. p. 

 328. 



' Clement d' Alexandria, Strom., lib. i., quoted from Eeynier, /icon, dcs 

 ligyp. et Carthag., p. 343. 



