96 
Ervum  Ervilia^  the  Bitter  Vetch. 
.\m.  Jour.  Pharrr. 
Feb.,  i82o. 
eral  simply  mentioned  as  poisonous.  Lindley,  in  his  "  Vegetable  King- 
dom,"^ says  that  the  seed  mixed  with  flour  produces  weakness  of  the 
extremities,  and  render  horses  almost  paralytic.  J.  C.  Loudon^ 
attributes  these  same  qualities  to  Lathyrus  sativus^  but  his  figure  of  Z. 
sativus  is  that  of  L.  aphaca^  so  there  may  be  some  confusion  with  both 
writers.  Sir  John  Hill,  whose  "Herbal"  is  dated  1756,  dismisses  it  as 
a  plant  having  no  properties  worthy  of  notice;  but  if  we  go  back 
another  hundred  years  we  find  it  to  be  an  article  of  the  Materia  Medica,. 
and  that  it  had  the  credit  of  curing  the  Emperor  Augustus,  "whose 
griefe  it  is  probable  was  a  toughe  flegme  condensate  in  the  lungs,  and 
and  hard  to  be  avoyded  and  spit  forth.'* 
In  those  well-known  books,  Gerarde's  "  Herball  and  Parkinson's 
"  Theater  of  Plantes,"^  the  bitter  vetch  and  its  virtues  are  fully  des- 
cribed, and  the  same  engraving  does  service  in  both.  The  name  given 
is  Orobus  receptus  herbariorum  ;  and  it  is  curious  to  observe  how  the 
properties  attributed  to  it  by  Galen  and  the  older  writers  are  quoted  in 
every  J^ook  of  this  and  of  anterior  date,  except  Celsus,  that  I  have 
consulted.  After  the  old  fashion  it  is  said  to  be  hot  in  the  first  degree 
and  dry  in  the  second.  Gerarde  says  that  "  men  do  altogether  abstain 
from  the  bitter  vetch,  for  it  hath  a  very  unpleasant  taste  and  naughty 
juice  ;  but  kine  in  Asia  and  in  most  other  countries  do  eat  thereof, 
being  made  sweet  by  steeping  in  water."  It  is  directed  to  be  given  as 
a  medicine  with  honey  as  an  electuary. 
In  the  "  Commentaries  of  Matthiolus  upon  Dioscorides,"^  a  book 
of  about  the  same  date,  we  find  that  there  was  then  considerable  con- 
troversy as  to  the  true  identity  of  Orobus,  Ervum  and  Ervilia,  and 
which  of  the  plants  known  to  the  ancients  were  meant  by  those  names. 
He  quotes  Galen,  "  Boves  apud  nos  ut  apud  alios  plerasque  gentes  Ervo  in 
aqua  edulcato  pascuntur ;  hominum  cibis  prorsus  hoc  semen  damnatur^  est 
enim  insuavissimum^  et  pravi  succi^  In  Bauhinus'  great  work,  "  His- 
toria  Plantarum,"  the  difficulty  is  still  further  worked  out,  one  sug- 
gestion being  that  Ervilia  must  be  the  same  as  Phaseolus^  the  kidney. 
^  Lindley's  "  Vegetable  Kingdom,''  1853,  p.  548. 
'^Loudon's  "Encyclopedia  of  Plants,"  1836,  p.  620. 
^"The  Herball,"  J.  Gerarde,  1636,  p.  1225. 
Theatrum  Botanicum,"  J.  Parkinson,  1640,  p.  1079. 
^  P.  A.  Matthioli,  "  Opera, '  1674,  p.  343. 
*Bauhini,  etc  ,  "  Historia  Plantarum,"  1651,  torn,  ii,  p.  296. 
