PLANTS CULTIVATED FOR THEIR SEEDS. 379 



find it indicated in Egypt, but it is common in Southern 

 Asia.^ 



The Sanskrit names hv/ng'A and priyungi),, of which 

 the first is retained in Bengali,^ are attributed to this 

 species. Piddington mentions several other names in 

 Indian languages in his Index. Ainslie* gives a Per- 

 sian name, arzun, and an Arabic name ; but the latter is 

 commonly attributed to Panicum, vnilidceum. There is 

 no Hebrew name, and the plant is not mentioned in 

 botanical works upon Egypt and Arabia. The European 

 names have no historical value. They are not original, 

 and commonly refer to the transmission of the species or 

 to its cultivation in a given country. The specific name, 

 italicwm, is an absurd example, the plant being rarely 

 cultivated and never wild in Italy. 



Rumphius says it is wild in the Sunda Isles, but not 

 very positively.* Linnaeus probably started from this 

 basis to exaggerate and even promulgate an error, saying, 

 " inhabits the Indies." ^ It certainly does not come from 

 the West Indies ; and further, Roxburgh asserts that he 

 never saw it wild in India. The Graminse have not 

 yet appeared in Sir Joseph Hooker's flora ; but Aitchi- 

 son^ gives the species as only cultivated in the north- 

 west of India. The Australian plant Avhieh Robert 

 Brown said belonged to this species belongs to another.' 

 P. italicvm, appears to be wild in Japan, at least in the 

 form called germanica by different authors,^ and the 

 Chinese consider the five cereals of the annual ceremony 

 to be natives of their country. Yet Bunge, in the 

 north of China, and Maximowicz in the basin of the 

 river Amur, only saw the species cultivated on a large 

 scale, in the form of the germanica, variety.^ In 



• Roxburgh, Fl. Ind., edit. 1832, vol. i. p. 302 ; Rumphius, Amioin , v. 

 p, 202, t. 75. 



" Roxburgh, ibid. ' Ainslie, Mat. Med. Ind., i. p. 226. 



' " Obcurrit in Baleya," etc. (Rum/phius, v. p. 202). 



" " Habitat in Indiis " (Liiuiseus, Species, i. p. 83). 



' Aitchison, Catal. of Punjab PI., p. 162. 



' Bentham, Flora Austral., vii. p. 493. 



■ Frauohet and Savatier, Enum. Japan., ii. p. 262. 



• Bunge, Enum., No. 399 ; Maximowicz, Frimitim Amur., p. 330. 



