336 ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS. 



anciently introduced into the south of Europe, the species 

 being of Syrian or north African origin. He maintains 

 as probable the theory of Hoefer and Bonn^,'- that the 

 lotus of the lotophagi was the carob tree, of which the 

 flower is sweet and the fruit has a taste of honey, which 

 agrees with the expressions of Homer. The lotus-eaters 

 dwelt in Cyrenaica, so that the carob must have been 

 abundant in their country. If we admit this hypothesis 

 we must suppose that Pliny and Herodotus did not know 

 Homer's plant, for the one describes the lotos as bearing 

 a fruit like a mastic berry {Pistacia lentiscus), the other 

 as a deciduous tree.^ 



An hypothesis regarding a doubtful plant formerly 

 mentioned by a poet can hardly serve as the basis of 

 an argument upon facts of natural history. After all, 

 Homer's lotus plant perhaps existed only in the fabled 

 garden of Hesperides. I return to more serious argu- 

 ments, on which Bianca has said a few words. 



The carob has two names in ancient languages — the 

 one Greek, keraunia or Jcerateia;^ the other Arabic, 

 chirnub or charub. The first alludes to the form of the 

 pod, which is like a slightly curved horn ; the other means 

 merely pod, for we find in Ebn Baithar's* work that four 

 other leguminous plants bear the same name, with a quali- 

 fying epithet. The Latins had no special name; they 

 used the Greek word, or the expression siliqua, siliqvM 

 grcBca (Greek pod).^ This dearth of names is the sign of a 

 once restricted area, and of a culture which probably does 

 not date from prehistoric time. The Greek name is still 

 retained in Greece. The Arab name persists among the 

 Kabyles, who call the fruit Icharroub, the tree takhar- 

 rout,^ and the Spaniards algarrobo. Curiously enough, 



■ Hcefer, Hist. Bot. Minir. et 66ol., 1 vol. in 12nio, p. 20 ; Bonne, Le 

 Oarouhier, ou I'Arire des Lotophages, Algiers, 1869 (quoted by Hoefer). 

 See above, the article on the jujnbe tree. 



=i Pliny, Hi^., lib. i. cap. 30. 



' Theophrastus, Hist. Plant., lib. i. cap. 11 ; Dioscorides, lib. i. 

 cap. 155 ; Fraas, Syn. Fl. Class., p. 65. 



• Ebn Baithar, German trans., i. p. 354; Forskal, Fl. JEgypt., p. 77. 



• Columna, quoted by Lenz, Bot. der Alien, p. 73; Pliny, Hist., 

 lib. xiii. cap. 8. 



• Diet. Frang.-Beriire, at the word Caroube. 



