LATHYRUS SATIVUS, Unn. 



[Vide Plate XXXII]. 



English, none ; Veknaculae, kasari, kassar, tiura, tiuri, latri (Azamgarh). 



Natural order Leguminosce, sub-order Papilionacece, tribe Viciece. A smooth procumbent or 

 climbing annual. Stems quadrangular, two of the angles winged. Leaves pinnate, ending in trifid 

 tendrils ; stipules broad, entire, acuminate, sagittate below ; petioles about 1 in. long, winged, 

 broader upwards ; leaflets 2, linear lanceolate, acuminate, entire, on very short pale tumid stalks. 

 Peduncles longer than the petiole, 1-flowered. Calyx teeth spreading in flower, lanceolate, acute, 

 about twice as long as the tube, the lowest one a little longer than the rest. Standard and wings 

 peacock-blue tinged with reddish purple, rarely white ; standard about |-in. long, rather broader 

 than its length, emarginate ; claws of wings incurved ; keel petals somewhat twisted, pale tinged 

 with pink. Stamens diadelphous, tube of the united ones truncate. Style bent, bearded below. 

 Pod ovate oblong, about an inch in length, compressed, and with a conspicuous wing on either side 

 of the dorsal suture. Seeds 4-5 filling up the pod, ovate or wedge-shaped, flattened or somewhat 

 concave on two sides, black, brown or yellowish and marbled. 



"Wild from the southern Caucasus or Caspian Sea as far as Northern India, from 

 thence it has spread westward as a weed of cultivation. It was known to the Greeks 

 under the name oi lathyros, and the Romans called it cicercula.\ 



It is a coarse kind of pea, notorious for its effect in producing paralysis if eaten in 

 excess. Its grain may be readily recognized from that of the true pea by being 

 somewhat flattened on two sides (whence the true pea is often termed ^ol mattar or 

 " round " pea), and by the reddish marbling with which its surface is variegated. 



It is grown as a cold weather crop on land which will raise no other kind of pulse. 

 Its cultivation is commonest on very heavy clay soils, and it is frequently sown on land 

 submerged in the rainy season, which hardens during the cold weather almost to the 

 consistency of stone, splitting up into long deep fissures. After prolonged floods it 

 occasionally ofiers a means of raising a cold weather crop from land which would 

 otherwise be unculturable, since it can be sown broadcast on miry ground, and is not 

 so injuriously efi'ected by the subsequent hardening of the surface as would be the case 

 with any other rabi crop. For similar reasons it is occasionally sown in rice fields even 

 before the rice is cut, springing up between the rice stalks, and yielding a crop in the 

 spring whilst the rice stubble is still standing. 



Its cultivation is commonest in the eastern districts, and is of considerable extent 

 in that part of the Allahabad District which lies south of the Jumna. It is also much 

 grown under the name of " latri " in the Azamgarh District. No reliable statistics of 

 its area are forthcoming. 



• References :— Koxb. FI. Ind. iii. 322 ; Benth. in Royle 111. 200 ; Hook. Fl. Brit. Ind. ii. 179; Baden-Powell Punj. 

 Prod. 242 ; Gaz. N.-W. P. Vol. x. 694 ; DC. L'Orig. PI. Cult. 88. 

 t DC. L'Orig. PI. Cult. 1. c. 



