covered with ivy, this pea mixes with its gloomy leaves with a happy effect. We are not aware whether it has ever been cultivated by the agriculturist, but as it is perennial, and yields a great quantity of green fodder, the experiment may be worth the trial. We will venture to promise that the seeds will be acceptable to the farmer's pigeons and the landlord's game, whilst its flowers will materially assist to fill the comb of the cottager's hives, even if it be no further cultivated than for decorating the common hedge-rows, where its bunches of papilionaceous flowers could not fail to delight the passenger by their gay tints. These Peas may be sown either in the autumn or the spring, and the plants will bear removing.

TANGIER PEA. Lathyrus Tingitanus.

This plant, whose name pronounces it a native of Barbary, is an annual flower that has been an inmate in our gardens since the year 1680; but as it is greatly inferior to the Sweet Pea in point of beauty, we shall merely notice it on account of the velvet-like petals of its small but richly-coloured corolla.

LUPINE. Lupinus.

Natural Order Papilionacea, or Leguminosa. A Genus of the Diadelphia Decandria Class.

Tristisque Lupini

Sustuleris fragiles calamos.

Where stalks of Lupines grew,

Th' ensuing season, in return, may bear
The bearded product of the golden year.

VIRGIL.

DRYDEN.

THE Lupine, which we cherish in our gardens as an ornament to the parterre, formed an important article in the husbandry of the Romans, who cultivated it not only as a subsistence for their cattle, but as a food for themselves also. Pliny says, he could not recommend any diet that is more wholesome and lighter of digestion, than the White Lupines, when eaten dry. Their bitterness was taken off by soaking them in hot water, or covering them with hot ashes. The same author says, that this food gave those who ate it generally with their meals, a fresh colour and a cheerful countenance.

We learn from Columella, that Lupines were sometimes flavoured with a Syrian root, and so eaten to provoke drinking, or perhaps to give a

relish to the Egyptian beer, as our country people

introduce cheese.

That root

Which comes of Syrian seed, which sliced is given
With moist'ned Lupines join'd, that it may
Provoke fresh bumpers of Pelusian beer.

Lib. 10.

The eating of Lupines was also thought to brighten the mind, and quicken the imagination. It is related of Protogenes, a celebrated painter of Rhodes, who flourished about three hundred and twenty-eight years before Christ, that, during the seven years he was employed in painting the hunting-piece of Jalysus, who was supposed to be the founder of the state of Rhodes, he lived entirely upon Lupines and water, with an idea that this aliment would give him greater flights of fancy. It was in this picture that he wished to introduce a dog panting, with foam at his mouth; but not succeeding to his satisfaction, he threw his sponge upon the painting in a fit of anger, when chance brought to perfection what the utmost of his art could not accomplish, for the sponge falling on the wet paint that was intended to represent the foam, gave it so much the appearance of reality, that the piece was universally admired.

We shall relate another anecdote of this Lupineeating painter, to show in what reverence the artists were held in those early days.

When Demetrius besieged Rhodes, he refused to set fire to a part of the city, which might have made him master of the whole, because he knew that Protogenes was then working in that quarter. When the town was taken, the painter was found closely employed in a garden, finishing a picture; and upon being asked by the conqueror why he showed not more concern at the general calamity, he replied, that Demetrius made war against the Rhodians, and not against the fine arts.

The Lupine is a plant that loves a poor light sandy soil, and it was much employed by the Romans as a manure for such situations, being ploughed or dug into the ground just as it began to blossom. It formed the principal manure for many vineyards and orchards where animal dung could not be procured. Cato recommends the haulm of Lupines, amongst other vegetable substances, to form a compost for vines that were decaying. It is remarked by Pliny, that the Lupine was sowed with less expense to the husbandman than any other seed, since it was merely scattered on the ground amongst the bushes or briers without either ploughing or digging, and that the seed readily took root without being covered with earth.

Mr. Swinburn observes, that Lupines are still sown in the neighbourhood of Naples to manure

the land, which are hoed up before they fructify. This is also practised in the south of France in poor dry soils, as a meliorating crop to be ploughed in, where no manure is to be had, and the ground is too poor for clover and other better

crops.

The ancients named this plant Lupinus, from Lupus, a wolf, on account of its voracious nature. When this pulse was eaten without preparation to destroy the bitter, it was apt to contract the muscles, and give a sorrowful appearance to the countenance—hence Virgil calls it Tristes Lupinus.

The name of Lupinus is of great antiquity; and the seeds are said to have been used by the ancients, in their plays and comedies, instead of pieces of money: hence the proverb, Nummus Lupinus, a piece of money of no value; as also that of Horace

Nec tamen ignorat, quid distent Era Lupinis.

The French call this plant Le Lupin, the Italians Lupino, the Spaniards Entramocos, and the Germans Feigbonen, Fig-bean.

Lupines have long possessed a place in our gardens, since they appear to have been common in the time of Gerard; but they scarcely deserve a situation amongst choice flowers, and we should therefore recommend them to the shrubbery, where the Yellow Lupine, Luteus, is acceptable, on ac

VOL. II.

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