Vegetable substances used for the food of man / [Edwin Lankester. Revised and partly rewritten].

  • Edwin Lankester
Date:
1846
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Vegetable substances used for the food of man / [Edwin Lankester. Revised and partly rewritten]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    138/518 page 132
    I The ripe seeds known by the name of haiicots are pre- pared in various ways as a favourite edible in France ; where the dwarf white kidney-bean is extensively culti- vated as a field crop, to furnish a supply' of their seeds, which are in so constant demand. I'he seeds of the Dutch runners, -which are larger than these, and of a superior cpiality, are made into a kind of soup, which is held in much esteem in Holland. The leaves likewise of the kidney-bean afford, when boiled, a culinary vege- table which the Nubians consider an excellent esculent. Some varieties of the kidney-bean are found in culti- vation throughout almost every civilized country of the western as well as the eastern hemisphere. The small black beans QnWed fricollis, which are in general demand all over Mexico, are no doubt a kind of kidney-bean. Recent travellers in that country relate that immense fields of these are under cultivation for the supply of the large cities, where they form a part of every meal, and are not only in great i'avour with the inhabitants, but are considered excellent even by strangers. Among the productions of Bornou, JMajor Denham enumerates four kinds of beans, which arc raised in great quantities, called nwssaqua, wurya, Itleeny, and Idmmay, all known by the general name of yafoohj. These are eaten by the slaves and the poorer people. A paste compounded from beans and fish was the only eatable the major and his companions could find in the towns near the river.* The Lentil {Ervum Lens) is a small climbing plant, with weak stalks, about a foot and a half high. The leaves are winged, and each is terminated by a tendril. The ilowcrs, of a pale ])ur])lc colour, arc succeeded by short flat ]iods containing two or three flat round seeds. Another sort, distinguisiicd as the French lentil, is of much larger growth than the former, and altogether more worthy of cultivation. These jdants are rarely raised in I'ingland, and then only as food for cattle. In most parts of the Continent they are cultivated for the use of man, and the seeds are made into soups, or become * Denham’s ‘ Travels,' vol. ii. p. 1-13.
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