August 3. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
347 
well as the Penieillaria, are of more recent introduction from 
India or from Africa. All four species appear to have 
supplied grain for food, in periods of very remote antiquity, 
in Egypt or India, where their wild prototypes must be 
sought for. The Panicum miliacenm, and some varieties of 
the Penieillaria , are but little altered from the original forms 
as still found in those countries. The Setaria italica is not 
unlikely to be a luxuriant cultivated form of the S. glauca, 
a most abundant weed in all warm countries. As to 
the cultivated Sorghums, most botanists distinguish 
several species, although none are to be found in a wild 
1 state, except perhaps those which have a more diffuse 
panicle with less crowded flowers, and which come the near- 
j est to the more luxuriant specimens of the Sorghum hale- 
pense, which is very abundant wild in some parts of 
Southern Europe, and all over Africa and India. Indeed, 
we believe it to be the opinion of an eminent agrostologist 
who has shown the soundest judgment in the investigation' 
of East Iudian and other Gramimr , an opinion in which we 
fully concur, that the described species of Sorghum are 
mostly, if not all, mere varieties of the Sorghum halepense, 
: produced by extensive cultivation during a long series of 
ages. 
Maize and Indian Corn (Zea mays) now so widely spread 
over the South of Europe, does not appear to have been in¬ 
troduced from America till near a century after the discovery 
of that continent, though mentioned as a valuable article of 
food in the West Indies by several travellers of the 10th 
century ; it is shown to have been still unknown in Spain at 
the close of that period, and it was not until after the year 1010 
that it found its way through Spain and Sicily into Italy. 
Professor Targioni - Tozzetti satisfactorily shows that all 
supposed mention of this grain by earlier writers before the 
discovery of America referred to other kinds of grain, 
though under some of the names since given to the Maize, 
j We are not yet sufficiently acquainted with the American 
j flora to ascertain, with any probability, what is the original 
! indigenous foim of this, apparently, the earliest cultivated 
American grain. 
Rice was in the year 1400 still only known in Italy as an 
article of import from the East. Its cultivation was intro¬ 
duced into Piedmont and Lombardy in the end of the 15th 
or commencement of the 16th century, either directly from 
India by the Portuguese, or through Spain and Naples by 
the Spaniards. Some of the varieties now grown in India 
appear to be but little removed from their wild prototype. 
The Sugar-Cane is merely alluded to because its cultivation 
was attempted in Tuscany in the 16th century, but found 
totally unsuited to the climate. Of Asiatic origin, where the 
wild type is not uncommon, it was carried to the West 
Indies, and thence introduced into Sicily in the time of the 
Saracens. It was also, perhaps, for a short time cultivated 
in Calabria, a point which has been much disputed, although 
of no importance, as no success attended the experiment if 
made. 
Leguminous plants, either as forage or as pulse, cover a 
wide extent of the fields of Tuscan}', and in the latter shape 
form a much greater proportion of the food of the inhabit¬ 
ants than in our own country. The introduction of most of 
the kinds into Italy dates from a period of very remote anti¬ 
quity, for Professor Targioni finds them mentioned by 
nearly all the ancient Greek and Latin writers on Georgies, 
; and their origin is difficult to trace. Some of them, indeed, 
are but little altered from the wild forms not uncommon in 
Italy ; but whether these be indigenous, or have become 
naturalised there in consequence of their cultivation, remains 
doubtful. Taking them in the order in which they are here 
mentioned : the Pea has been stated by several authors to 
be a native of Italy, and Professor Targioni admits this to 
be the case with the field pea, or rubiglio (Pisum arvense), 
but with most botanists, insists upon the garden-pea , or 
pisello (Pisum sativum), being a distinct species of unknown 
origin. In this conclusion wo cannot join ; all our culti¬ 
vated Pisums are surely referable to one species, which is 
most probably really indigenous only in the more eastern of 
the districts, where it is now found apparently wild. 
Of the Haricots, or French beans, Fagioli (Phaseolere), only 
two arc mentioned ns grown in Tuscany, both indigenous to 
and introduced from East India, where the cultivated 
I 
species arc very numerous.* One is our common Haricot, 
or French bean (Phaseolus vulgaris), so well known in all 
civilised countries; the other is the Fagiolo del’ Occhio 
(Dolichos melanophthalmus of Savi), a mere variety of the 
Dolichos or Vigna Sinensis, much cultivated in India and 
Egypt, but only very sparingly so in Southern Europe, and 
entirely unknown in this country. 
Tlie common Bean (Vicia Faba), has been vainly sought 
for in a wild state. The vague indication of supposed 
habitats in Persia, or on the shores of the Caspian, have 
not been confirmedby modem researches. May it not, how¬ 
ever, have had its origin in the Vicia Narbonensis? a 
species not uncommon in the Mediterranean region from 
Spain to the Caucasus, and very much resembling the Beau 
in every respect, except in the thinness of the pod and the 
smallness of the seeds. 
The seven following are stated to be all spontaneous in 
Asia, and slightly improved by long cultivation in European 
fields, being all mentioned by ancient Greek and Roman 
writers, viz., the Lupin (Lupinus albus), the Mochi (La¬ 
th} rus cicer, Pois cornu of the French), the Cicerchie (La- 
thyrus sativus, or Gesse of the French), the Leri, or Zirli 
(Vicia ervilia), the Vetch (Vicia saliva), the Cece (Cicer 
arietinum, or Pois chiche), and the Lentil (Ervum Lens). 
Several of these are now wild also in Italy, and the two 
Latliyri, and the common Vetch, may be indigenous ; but 
they may with equal probability be only naturalised, as they 
are evidently so little altered by cultivation, that they may 
readily propagate naturally when they meet with a genial 
soil and climate. All of these are more or less eaten by the 
Italians as pulse, but few would be palatable to the English 
tastes. The Cicer, indeed, though rather coarse, is very fair 
when properly dressed and seasoned, but the only one really 
deserving importation is the Lentil, which is both wholesome 
and nutritious, ( and excellent en purte, in various stews and 
made dishes, Ac. It is very much consumed all over 
Southern Europe, and constitutes, in all probability, that 
much-puffed article, so absurdly disguised for the purpose of 
salfe, under the high-sounding name of Revalcnta arabica , an 
evident corruption of Erba lenta. 
Numerous as are the Leguminosce used for forage in 
Southern Italy and Sicily, four only are mentioned as 
cultivated for that purpose in Tuscany : the Lucern (Medi- 
cago sativa), introduced, according to the ancient writers, 
from Media into Greece, in the time of Darius, and thence 
into Italy ; the Sainfoin (Onobrychis sativa), the Sulla or 
Lupinella (Hedysarum coronarium, or French honeysuckle), 
and Trufogliolo (Trifolium incarnatum), the three last in¬ 
digenous to Italy, and of comparatively modern cultivation. 
Allusion is made to the confusion and frequent inntercliange 
of names between the Lucern and the Sainfoin, which 
appears to be as prevalent in Italy as it is in many parts of 
France, and has often led to error in regard to their 
agricultural statistics. No mention is made of our common 
rod or white clovers, nor of the Medicago lupulina, so much 
cultivated in Britain and Central Europe. 
Four esculent Solanete are extensively cultivated in Tus¬ 
cany : the Potato, the Tomato, the Egg-plant, and the Capsi¬ 
cum, two first of American origin, the third East Indian, and 
the fourth either American or African, or both. 
The history of the introduction of the Potato (Solatium 
tuberosum), is well known. Although mentioned occa¬ 
sionally by American explorers of the Kith century (by some 
confounded with the sweet potato, a convolvulaccous plant), 
it was not otherwise known in Europe till brought to 
England by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1580. Two years after¬ 
wards, Clusius at Vienna obtained two tubers through the 
Prefect of Mon3, in Belgium, from a servant of the Ponti¬ 
fical Nuntiate in the Low Countries. It may have been 
transmitted to Italy at about the same time from the same 
source. At any rate, it was certainly in cultivation in Tus- j 
* These, however, arc not nearly so numerous as is generally supposed ; 
thus, the Phaseolus vulgaris includes at least eight of the commonly 
adopted species of modern botanists, the P. tunatus four, the P, Max or 
Mungo (which is either dwarf or clmbing, like the P. vulgaris ) five or 
six, the P Truxillensis three or four, Dolichos (or rather Vignu) Sinensis 
four or five, Lublnb vulgaris at least as many, Cunamliu gludinta two 
or three, and so on. This multiplication of species has not been owing 
entirely to the considering as botanical species what are mere varieties 
of cultivation, but in several instances it has arisen from the same varie. 
tics having been received from Asia, Africa, and America, and separately 
described without adverting to their common origin. 
