Ervilia—Ervum Ervilia, Linnæus; Vicia Ervilia, Willdenow.
Bertoloni[489] gives no less than ten common Italian names—ervo, lero, zirlo, etc. This is an indication of an ancient and general culture. Heldreich[490] says that the modern Greeks cultivate the plant in abundance as fodder. They call it robai, from the ancient Greek orobos, as ervos comes from the Latin ervum. The cultivation of the species is mentioned by ancient Greek and Latin authors.[491] The Greeks made use of the seed; for some has been discovered in the excavations on the site of Troy.[492] There are a number of common names in Spain, some of them Arabic,[493] but the species has not been so widely cultivated there for several centuries.[494] In France it is so little grown that many modern works on agriculture do not mention it. It is unknown in British India.[495]
General botanical works indicate Ervum Ervilia as growing in Southern Europe, but if we take severally the best floras, it will be seen that it is in such localities as fields, vineyards, or cultivated ground. It is the same in Western Asia, where Boissier[496] speaks of specimens from Syria, Persia, and Afghanistan. Sometimes, in abridged catalogues,[497] the locality is not given, but nowhere do I find it asserted that the plant has been seen wild in places far from cultivation. The specimens in my own herbarium furnish no further proof on this head.
In all likelihood the species was formerly wild in Greece, Italy, and perhaps Spain and Algeria, but the frequency of its cultivation in the very regions where it existed prevent us from now finding the wild stocks.
Tare, or Common Vetch—Vicia sativa, Linnæus.
Vicia sativa is an annual leguminous plant wild throughout Europe, except in Lapland. It is also common in Algeria,[498] and to the south of the Caucasus as far as the province of Talysch.[499] Roxburgh pronounces it to be wild in the north-west provinces and in Bengal, but Sir Joseph Hooker admits this only as far as the variety called angustifolia[500] is concerned. No Sanskrit name is known, and in the modern languages of India only Hindu names.[501] Targioni believes it to be the ketsach of the Hebrews.[502] I have received specimens from the Cape and from California. The species is certainly not indigenous in the two last-named regions, but has escaped from cultivation.
The Romans sowed this plant both for the sake of the seed and as fodder as early as the time of Cato.[503] I have discovered no proof of a more ancient cultivation. The name vik, whence vicia, dates from a very remote epoch in Europe, for it exists in Albanian,[504] which is believed to be the language of the Pelasgians, and among the Slav, Swedish, and Germanic nations, with slight modifications. This does not prove that the species was cultivated. It is distinct enough and useful enough to herbivorous animals to have received common names from the earliest times.
Flat-podded Pea—Lathyrus Cicera, Linnæus.
An annual leguminous plant, esteemed as fodder, but whose seed, if used as food in any quantity, becomes dangerous.[505]
It is grown in Italy under the name of mochi.[506] Some authors suspect that it is the cicera of Columella and the ervilia of Varro,[507] but the common Italian name is very different to these. The species is not cultivated in Greece.[508] It is more or less grown in France and Spain, without anything to show that its use dates from ancient times. However, Wittmack[509] attributes to it, but doubtfully, some seeds brought by Virchow from the Trojan excavations.