366 
M. Link on the Ancient History of 
Heim first brought this plant from Brazil. But in the old bo- 
tanical works respecting Brazil, I find no notice of it. 
The Chick Pea , (Cicer arietinum.) 
The Chick pea ( Cicer arietinum ) is found, like the lentil, 
growing wild in the com fields of southern Europe; but it is 
only found occasionally, and by accident in them. It is, with- 
out doubt, the 'fifiivfros of the Greeks. It is a leguminous fruit 
(Theophr. Hist. FI. 1. viii. c. 1.), with a deep seated root (c. ii.), 
7 rXoiyH>x.otvXov (c. iii.), with a round pod (c. v.) It is twice sowed 
in a year. The Greeks still call it ftBiB-t. It is mentioned in 
the Iliad, immediately after the above cited passage, respecting 
lentils. There were, as now, many varieties of the fruit, black, 
white and red, (Theophr. Hist. PI. 1. viii. c. 6.) The name 
denotes only the chick pea. The Romans always translated 
l^fitvS-og by cicer 9 and cultivated this fruit very much, as is still 
the case in the south of Europe. Chick pease are still called 
ceci in Italy, pois chiches in France, kichern in Germany ; all 
of which names come from cicer . In Spain and Portugal, 
they are called by a moorish name garavanzos. A variety was 
called by the ancient Greeks %fog, in Latin arietinum , from its 
resemblance to the head of a ram. The ancients also speak 
often of the acid which chick pease perspire, and which has late- 
ly given occasion to many chemical experiments, (S. Scherer’s 
Journ. fur Chem. Th. viii. s. 272). They call it or salsug'o , 
and maintain that it is peculiar to the chick pea, and does not in- 
jure its grow th. Chick pease are cultivated throughout the whole 
of southern Europe, in the East, in Kabul ( mickhodj , and in 
northern India ( But ). They require such a climate as the south 
of Europe. Dioscorides mentions wild chick pease (1. ii. c. 126*.), 
as does also Pliny (1. ii. c. 25.), but the former mentions that 
they are different in regard to the fruit, and are therefore cer- 
tainly a different species. Cicer punicum , (Columb. 1. ii. c. 10 , 
20.), I regard as rather a variety of the chick pea, than La- 
thy r us sativus. 
Lupin. 
Every thing relating to the Lupin ( Lupinus albus ) is equal- 
ly clear. It is the lupinus of the Romans, of the Greeks, 
a plant which is cultivated throughout the wdiole south of Eu- 
