The fine plate published by Sibthorp, Flora Græca, 589, suggests that the species is worthy of more general cultivation.
Trigonel, or Fenugreek—Trigonella fænum-græcum, Linnæus.
The cultivation of this annual leguminous plant was common in ancient Greece and Italy,[531] either for spring forage, or for the medicinal properties of its seeds. Abandoned almost everywhere in Europe, and notably in Greece,[532] it is maintained in the East and in India,[533] where it is probably of very ancient date, and throughout the Nile Valley.[534] The species is wild in the Punjab and in Kashmir,[535] in the deserts of Mesopotamia and of Persia,[536] and in Asia Minor,[537] where, however, the localities cited do not appear sufficiently distinct from the cultivated ground. It is also indicated[538] in several places in Southern Europe, such as Mount Hymettus and other localities in Greece, the hills above Bologna and Genoa, and a few waste places in Spain; but the further west we go the more we find mentioned such localities as fields, cultivated ground, etc.; and careful authors do not fail to note that the species has probably escaped from cultivation.[539] I do not hesitate to say that if a plant of this nature were indigenous in Southern Europe, it would be far more common, and would not be wanting to the insular floras, such as those of Sicily, Ischia, and the Balearic Isles.[540]
The antiquity of the species and of its use in India is confirmed by the existence of several different names in different dialects, and above all of a Sanskrit and modern Hindu name, methi.[541] There is a Persian name, schemlit, and an Arab name, helbeh;[542] but none is known in Hebrew.[543] One of the names of the plant in ancient Greek, tailis τηλις, may, perhaps, be considered by philologists as akin to the Sanskrit name,[544] but of this I am no judge. The species may have been introduced by the Aryans, and the primitive name have left no trace in northern languages, since it can only live in the south of Europe.
Bird’s Foot—Ornithopus sativus, Brotero; O. isthmocarpus, Cosson.
The true bird’s foot, wild and cultivated in Portugal, was described for the first time in 1804 by Brotero,[545] and Cosson has distinguished it more clearly from allied species.[546] Some authors had confounded it with Ornithopus roseus of Dufour, and agriculturists have sometimes given it the name of a very different species, O. perpusillus, which by reason of its small size is unsuited for cultivation. It is only necessary to see the pod of Ornithopus sativus to make certain of the species, for it is when ripe contracted at intervals and considerably bent. If there are in the fields plants of a similar appearance, but whose pods are straight and not contracted, they are the result of a cross with O. roseus, or, if the pod is curved but not contracted, with O. compressus. From the appearance of these plants, it seems that they might be grown in the same manner, and would present, I suppose, the same advantages.
The bird’s foot is only suited to a dry and sandy soil. It is an annual which furnishes in Portugal a very early spring fodder. Its cultivation has been successfully introduced into Campine.[547]
O. sativus appears to be wild in several districts of Portugal and the south of Spain. I have a specimen from Tangier; and Cosson found it in Algeria. It is often found in abandoned fields, and even elsewhere. It is difficult to say whether the specimens are not from plants escaped from cultivation, but localities are cited where this seems improbable; for instance, a pine wood near Chiclana, in the south of Spain (Willkomm).
Spergula, or Corn Spurry—Spergula arvensis, Linnæus.
This annual, belonging to the family of the Caryophylaceæ, grows in sandy fields and similar places in Europe, in North Africa and Abyssinia,[548] in Western Asia as far as Hindustan,[549] and even in Java.[550] It is difficult to know over what extent of the old world it was originally indigenous. In many localities we do not know if it is really wild or naturalized from cultivation. Sometimes a recent introduction may be suspected. In India, for instance, numerous specimens have been gathered in the last few years; but Roxburgh, who was so diligent a collector at the end of the last and the beginning of the present century, does not mention the species. No Sanskrit or modern Hindu name is known,[551] and it has not been found in the countries between India and Turkey.