CICER ARIETINUM, Unn.' 



[Fic?e Plate VIII.] 



Description. 



Varieties. 



Distribution. 



Seasons. 



English, gram ; Vernacular, chana, nakhud (Persian). 



A viscid vetch-liko annual belonging to the tribe Viciece of the papilionaceous division of the 

 natural order LeguminoscB. Stems much branched. Leaves 1-2 in. long, pinnate. Stipules small, 

 persistent, leaf-like, obliquely ovate, deeply cut ; leaflets 7-8 pairs with usually a terminal one, ovate- 

 oblong or obovate, serrate, prominently veined. Peduncles axillary, 1-flowered, in. long, jointed 

 about the middle, becomiag deflexed after flowering ; bracts setaceous ; calyx tube oblique, teeth 

 about equal, narrow, lanceolate, equally or exceeding the tube. CoroUa longer than the calyx, pink 

 blue or white ; standard a little longer than the wings and keel. Stamens diadelphous. Pod oblong 

 inflated terminated by the persistent base of the style. Seeds irregularly obovate or sub-globose, 

 beaked, reddish-brown, black, or white. 



The botanical specific name owes its origin to a not altogether fanciful resemblance 

 of the seed, when first forming in the pod, to a ram's head. The English name "gram" 

 is applied to a totally different product in the Madras Presidency, where it denotes the 

 seed of the plant known in these Provinces as kurti or guar {Dolichos uniflorus). 



The varieties ordinarily grown in the Provinces may be for the most part thrown 

 into two classes, large grained and small grained, the former of a markedly reddish, and 

 the latter of a light brown, colour. A black grained variety is not uncommon, and there 

 is a very large white grained kind known as " Cabuli," which has hardly found its way 

 into ordinary cultivation, and is grown more as a curiosity than for profit. It requires 

 higher cultivation than the common varieties, and is said to closely resemble a kind 

 which is an important crop in Spain, and under the name of Garbanzos is used, plainly 

 boiled, as one of the commonest articles of food. 



Gram is one of the most characteristic crops of the Provinces, being grown either 

 alone or mixed with other crops, on about 42f lakhs of acres in the 30 temporarily set- 

 tled N.-W. Provinces Districts, which is about 17 per cent, of their total cropped area. 

 Its cultivation is tolerably evenly distributed throughout districts west of Allahabad, 

 east of which it shows a considerable decrease. Sown alone or mixed with wheat or barley 

 it forms the chief crop of the poorer classes of soils, and follows next after wheat and 

 barley in the extent of the area which it occupies. 



Gram is a rabi crop, and is the earliest sown of the number, not being damaged by 

 the heat of the end of September and beginning of October, as are the more strictly tem- 

 perate crops. It is sown from the middle of September to the middle of October, and 

 has therefore more chance than either wheat or barley of finding a moist seed bed, and it 

 is harvested in April. 



As a general rule it is grown on land which lay fallow during the preceding kharif, 

 but in Rohilkhand and Oudh it is very commonly grown as a second crop after early 

 rice, the area double cropped in this manner in the Gonda District being reported to be 

 in some parganas fully one-half of the total. 



* References :— Hook. Fl. Ind. ii. 176 ; Roxb. Fl. Ind. iii. 324 ; Wight Ic. t. 20 ; W. & A. Prod. 235 ; Drury p. 134 ; 

 Powell Punj. Prod. p. 240. 



F 



