SACEED BOTANY. — THE LENTIL. 

I 
141 
Hesperoscordum lacteum ; Calocliortus venustus, and splendens ; Viesseuxia, or Morfea pavonia ; 
Sternbergia lutea; Oxalis floribniida, divaricata, Boweana, Depj^ii, violacea; and from what I heari 
O. elegans would be a delightful addition. Also, here and there inti'oduce a patch of Tigridia 
pavonia, and eonchifiora. Such a border, with a little peat added at the spot, will be suitable for 
zauschneria californica ; also, Anemone japonica, and japonica hybrida. 
I could enumerate many other good things, but enough is here offered to select from. I will just 
observe, that temporary or permanent vacancies may, during the summer, be advantageously filled up 
with some of the best dwarf growing bedding plants ; with here and there a plant of the Pelargonium 
odoratissimum, and others of that class. The plants named in the above selection are all highly 
interesting, and many surpassingljr beautifal, and a portion of them would be in fiowcr from early 
spring until severe fi'osts ; but the roses will generally form the cliief attraction, being almost always 
in bloom where the situation is warm and sheltered. On the approach of severe weather, the whole 
border should be covered with a layer, fom- inches thick, of decayed leaves. 
Iflrrtil Sktmiii.— (KliE fratil. 
\ ENTILS, which appear to have been formerly extensively cidtivated in the East, as they are in 
&sX some parts at the present day, are several times mentioned in om- version of the Bible. The 
Hebrew adashim, which is so translated, is generally admitted to be correctly rendered, and the Ai-abic 
name addas, is, it appears, still applied to the Lentil in Syria. The plant is the Ervmn Lens of 
botanists, a leguminous hei-b, whose seeds are used as pulse, being chiefly employed in making a kind 
of pottage ; though sometimes, as appears fi'om Ezek. 
iv. 9, in making bread. 
It was for a mess of this pottage of Lentils, that Esau 
sold his birthi'iglit to his brother Jacob. Thus we read — 
" And Jacob sod pottage." " And Esau said to Jacob, 
feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage." 
"Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of Lentiles; 
and he did eat and di-ink, and rose up, and went his 
way : thus Esau despised his birthright" (Gen. xxv. 
29-34). When David fled before his son Absalom, his 
friends brought to him, at Mahanaim, " wheat, and 
bai'ley, and flom', and parched corn, and beans, and 
Lentiles, and parched pulse" (2 Sam. xvii. 29). Elsewhere 
we learn, that in one of the engagements between the 
Israelites and the Philistines, a troop of the latter were 
gathered together, "for foraging," as the marginal 
reading tells us, " where was a piece -of ground fall of 
Lentiles" (2 Sam. xxiii. 11). The parallel passage 
(1 Chron. xi. 13) indeed reads barley, instead of LentUes ; 
but the quotations evidence that Lentils were cultivated 
in Palestine at an early period, or other'svise in coimtries 
whence they were there easily obtamable. In Egypt, ac- 
cording to Dr. Royle, Lentils, anciently as now, formed 
a chief article of food among the labom-ing classes ; and 
Pliny, mentioning two varieties, incidentally refers to 
one of them as being red, that term being extended to 
yellowish brown. This illustrates Jacob's red pottage, 
the ti-ue colour- of which would be this yellowish brown, if made of Lentils. Dr. Shaw also states, that 
these Lentils, which easily dissolve in boiling, form a red or chocolate-coloured pottage, much esteemed 
in North Afiica and Western Asia. Hence the reddish Lentil, now common in Egypt, is probably 
that referred to in the Scriptm-e texts, though the Lentils of Palestine have been but little noticed by 
travellers. 
The Lentil is a small annual plant, with a weak stem eighteen inches high, having pinnate leaves, 
composed of several pairs of narrow oblong leaflets, and terminated by a slender tendiil. The flowers, 
wliich grow two or three together, from the sides of the branches or short peduncles, are pale pm-ple. 
ERVL'M LENS. 
iP^' 
