340 ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS. 



has ascertained to belong to tlie following species : broad 

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

 (Et'vum ervilia), and perhaps the flat-podded vetchling 

 {Lathyrus Gicera), 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 Phaseolus or Bolichos of botanists. A less ancient 



name, for it is Arabic, loubia, exists in Egypt for Bolichos 



lubia, and in Hindustani as loba for Phaseolus vulgaris} 



As regards the latter species, Piddington.only gives two 



names in modern languages, and those both Hindustani, 



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



Sanskrit name, points to a recent introduction into 



Southern Asia. Chinese authors do not mention P. 



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 



I 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 



\ faseoVws a leguminous plant which appears to be our 



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



• Delile, Plwntes Cultivees en £gypte, p. 14 ; Piddington, Indetc. 



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

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

 to me. 



' E. Meyer, Geschichte der Botanique, iii. p. 404. 



* " Paseolus est species leguminis et grant, quod est in quantitate parum 

 minus quam Fdba, et in figwa est columnare sicut faha, herhaque ejus 

 minor est aliquantulum quam herha Fdboe, Et sunt faseoli multorum 

 colorum, sed quodlibet granorwm hahet maculam nigram in loco cotyledoms" 

 (Jessen, Alberti Magni, De Vegetabiliius, edit, critica, p. 515). 



