365 
Leguminous Fruits . 
doubt that the words phaselus and pisum were first used to 
denote varieties or species of the lathyrus , and that afterwards 
they were appropriated to other leguminous fruits ; the former 
very early to the French bean, and the latter at a more recent 
period to pease. 
Dolichos. 
Boliehos in Theophrastus (Hist. PL 1. viii. c. 10.) seems to 
be our French bean, for Theophrastus says it bears good fruit 
when it is permitted to climb, but bad when it lies upon the 
ground. Galen, (De Aliment, facultat. 1. i. c. 28.) quotes the pas- 
sage, and applies it to a fruit which, in his time, was called 
short Xofiog, silique. The putting of cpua^Xog along with ^ and 
mrcs in the book of Hippocrates De Diaeta , induces Galen to think, 
since a<A^o? and (pawXog are not mentioned, that eiixiyog belongs 
to the same arrangement. He also appeals to a passage in 
Diodes Karystios, where xwifMs, irtrog, ctixiyog are mentioned, but 
not a fiDygoj ; and adds, we may believe that xdB- v ^og t uy^og, <px<r'iiXog 
are the same plant. To this list hoXiyog ought to have been add- 
ed. Fie further concludes, that the ^oXtyog of Diodes is the 
plant which is reared in gardens, and the pods of which are 
eaten green. Dioscorides describes under the name of c(.Uxa% 
5 analog our French bean very distinctly, (1. ii. c. 176.) The 
Arabians understood this, and Eben Baithar quotes, under the 
French bean, the crylxcc% of Dioscorides. The French beans, 
that is to say, the large French beans, but not the creeping- 
beans, were well known to the ancients, and were denoted by 
the words ZoXiyog and (pxcriix og, which, at a more early period, had 
been appropriated to Lathyrus. The native country of the 
common French bean ( Phaseolus vulgaris J, as well as of the 
creeping bean ( Phaseolus nanus ) is India, that is extremely pro- 
bable, since these plants cannot endure the slightest frost. In 
the catalogues of plants cultivated in India, I find, indeed, Ph. 
max. and mungo , but not our French bean, and correct infor- 
mation respecting its occurrence in India is entirely wanting. 
Willdenow asks, whether the Turkish bean (Pk. multijlorus ) 
be a native of America, induced, doubtless, by a notice in the 
botanical work of Houttuy ; namely, that the Admiral Peter 
VOL. V. NO. 10. OCTOBER 1821. E b 
