•(JQ 
Leguminous Fruits^ 127 
ulav that it grows wild only in such dilferent regions ; and it 
IS very probable, that it formerly grew wild on other coasts of 
Europe, but was gradually extirpated by the cattle. The cul- 
ture of sea-cabbage (Crambe maritima)^ a plant which grows 
wild on many of the coasts of Northern Europe, is entirely new, 
and has not yet become general in England. In China a pecu- 
liar species of cabbage is cultivated, called by Barrow Brassica 
orientalis^ which, however, ought not to be confounded with 
Brassica m'ientalis^ Lin. 
Theophrastus places three garden-plants together, (Hist. PL 
L i. c. 14. § 2. ed. Schneid.), pei'(p«vo 5 . To the 
second he ascribes a straight descending root, from which all tlic 
other roots come, (L. ii. c. 2.) According to Dioscorides, (1. ii. 
c. 145.), some call it ^^v(foXci'}(,ctvov : the blade is eaten dressed, it 
is blanched. Aristophanus mentions it. The Romans trans- 
lated by Atriplexy (Plin. Hist. Nat. 1. xx. c. 30.) ; but 
they afford few means of enabling us to ascertain it more' correct- 
ly. In general, their Atriplex is considered as an Atriplex hor^ 
tensisy and there is nothing against the idea, but nothing that 
confirms it. Atriplex liortensis was found by the elder Gmelin, 
growing wild in Southern Siberia. The /Sa/toj/ is generally men- 
tioned' to have been the Amai'anthus hlitunu The notices of the 
ancients, of Pliny, Dioscorides, and Galen, are so short, and so 
little descriptive, that the opinion above stated rests merely on 
tradition. Formerly this plant was more generally eaten than 
at present. In Portugal, the greatest number of different spe- 
cies of amaranths (not Am. hlituni) were eaten under the name 
of BredoSy which, from the usual practice of this language of 
changing ly after a consonant in the beginning of a word, into 
as also by the frequent change of i into Cy and of t into dy has 
doubtless arisen from Blitum. A. mangostanus and gangeticus 
are the most common plants in Northern India. Probably the 
ancients did not even eat A. hlitumy but A. albuSy and perhaps 
some other species, which are more tender than A. hlitumy and 
are more common in the south of Europe. 
Regarding Spinage {Spinacia oleracea)y Beckman (Hist, of 
Inventions, iv. 116.) has instituted some such investigation as 
might be expected from this industrious scholar. He has shewn 
that no trace of this plant is found among the ancients, but that. 
