LENTILS 



359 



LENTILS 



Ervum Lens, L. ; Lens esculenta, Mcench. Leguminosce. 



French^ Lentille. German^ Linse. Flemish and Dutch, Linze. Danish^ Lindse. Italian, 

 Lente. Spanish, Lenteja. Portuguese, Lentilha. 



Native of Southern Europe. — Annual. — A small and very 

 branching plant, forming a tuft 14 to 16 in. high. Stems slender 

 and angular ; leaves winged, composed of a great number of small 

 oval leaflets, light green in colour, and terminating in a simple 

 tendril ; flower axillary, small, white, produced in pairs, and suc- 

 ceeded by very flat pods, each of which usually contains two very 

 flat seeds, which are rounded in outline and convex on both sides. 

 The germinating power of these seeds lasts for four years. The 

 seed is generally sown in drills or lines in March. The plant 

 usually prefers light soil ; at least, 

 it seeds most plentifully when 

 grown in soil of that description. 

 It requires no attention until the 

 seeds are gathered in August or 

 September. These keep better 

 in the pods than they do after 

 they are threshed, so the crop is 

 only threshed out as a supply 

 is required. The seeds are eaten 

 like Haricot Beans, and of late 

 years their use has been very 

 much more frequent in England. 

 It is excellent for soups and 

 stews, and a capital addition to 

 our food supplies. 



Large Yellow Lentil.— Plant 

 of rather small size, but very 

 branching, and of rather pale 

 green colour ; seed very broad, 

 flat, and pale. This is the most 

 commonly cultivated variety, and 

 is grown extensively in the eastern and central districts of 

 France, and also in Germany. 



Like the Pea, the Lentil is often attacked by a small beetle or 

 weevil, the grubs of which feed on the seed, in which they remain 

 until they change into the form of a perfect insect ; and it is pro- 

 bably owing to the ravages of these insects that the cultivation 

 of Lentils has greatly fallen off in the northern districts of France. 



The two commercial names of Lorraine and Gallardon Lentils 

 merely indicate the districts from which the seeds are supplied, but 

 both refer to the same Large Yellow Lentil, just described. 



Large Yellow Lentil (^V natural size ; 

 detached branch, natural size). 



