332 ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS, 



specimen was ■wild.' A Malay name, kadelee? quite 

 different to the Japanese and Chinese common names, is 

 in favour of its indigenous character in Java. 



Known facts and historical and philological probabilities 

 tend to show that the species was wild from Cochin-China 

 to the south of Japan and to Java when the ancient 

 inhabitants of this region began to cultivate it at a very 

 remote period, to use it for food in various ways, and to 

 obtain from it varieties of which the number is remark- 

 able, especially in Japan. 



Pigeon-Pea — Co/atitts indicus, Sprengel; Cytisus 

 Gajan, Linnaeus. 



This leguminous plant, often grown in tropical coun- 

 tries, is a shrub, but it fruits in the first year, and in 

 some countries it is grown as an annual. Its seed is an 

 important article of the food of the negroes and natives, 

 but the European colonists do not care for it unless 

 cooked green like our garden-pea. The plant is easily 

 naturalized in poor soil round cultivated plots, even in 

 the West India Islands, where it is not indigenous.^ 



In Mauritius it is called ambrevade ; in the English 

 colonies, doll, pigeon-pea; and in the French Antilles, 

 pois d' Angola, pois de Congo, pois pigeon. 



It is remarkable that, though the species is diffused in 

 three continents, the varieties are not numerous. Two 

 are cited, based only upon the yeUow or reddish colour 

 of the flower, which were formerly regarded as distinct 

 species; but a more attentive examination has resulted in 

 their being classed as one, in accordance with Linnseus' 

 opinion.* The small number of variations obtained even 

 in the organ for which the species is cultivated is a sign 

 of no very ancient culture. Its habitation previous to 

 culture is uncertain. The best botanists have sometimes 

 supposed it to be a native of India, sometimes of tropical 



• Soja cmgustifoUa, Miquel ; see Hooker, Fl. Brit. Ind., ii. p. 184. 



* Rninphias, Amb., vol. v. p. 388. 



• Tussac, Flore des Antilles, toI. it. p. 94, pi. 32; Grisebaoh, Fl. of 

 Brit. W. Indies, i. p. 191. 



* See Wight and Arnott, Prod. Fl. Penins. Ind., p. 256 ; Klotzsch, in 

 Peters, Reise nach Mozambique, i. p. 36. The yellow variety is figured 

 in Tussao, that with the red flowers in the Botanical Register, 3 845, pi. 31. 



