LENTIL, the seed of Lens esculenta (also known as Ervum Lens), a small annual of the vetch tribe. The plant varies from 6 to 18 in. in height, and has many long ascending branches. The leaves are alternate, with six pairs of oblong-linear, obtuse, mu cronate leaflets. The flowers, two to four in number, are of a pale blue colour, and are borne in the axils of the leaves, on a slender footstalk nearly equalling the leaves in length ; they are produced in June or early in July. The pods are about in. long, broadly oblong, slightly inflated, and contain two seeds, which are of the shape of a doubly convex lens, and about k in. in diameter. There are several cultivated varieties of the plant, differing in size, hairi ness and colour of the leaves, flowers and seeds. The last may be more or less compressed in shape, and in colour may vary from yellow or grey to dark brown; they are also sometimes mottled or speckled. In English commerce two kinds of lentils are princi pally met with, French and Egyptian. The former are usually sold entire, and are of an ash-grey colour externally and of a yellow tint within ; the latter are usually sold like split peas, without the seed coat, and consist of the reddish-yellow cotyledons, which are smaller and rounder than those of the French lentil ; the seed coat when present is of a dark brown colour. Considerable quantities of lentils are also imported into the United States.
The native country of the lentil is not known. It was probably one of the first plants brought under cultivation by mankind. Lentils have been found in the lake dwellings of St. Peter's island. Lake of Bienne, which are of the Bronze age. The red pottage of lentils for which Esau sold his birthright (Gen. xxv. 34) was ap parently made from the red Egyptian lentil. This lentil is culti vated in one or other variety in India, Persia, Syria, Egypt, Nubia and North Africa, and in Europe, along the coast of the Mediterranean, and as far north as Germany, Holland and France. In Egypt, Syria and other Eastern countries the parched seeds are exposed for sale in shops, and esteemed the best food to carry on long journeys.
The reddish variety of the lentil (lentillon d'hiver) is the kind most esteemed in France on account of the superior flavour of its smaller seeds. It is sown in autumn either with a cereal crop or alone, and is cultivated chiefly in the north and east of France. The large or common variety, lentille large blonde, cultivated in Lorraine and at Gallardon (Eure-et-Loir), and largely in Germany, is the most productive, but is less esteemed. This kind has very small whitish flowers, two or rarely three on a footstalk, and the pods are generally one-seeded, the seeds being of a whitish or cream colour, about of an inch broad and * in. thick. A single plant produces from zoo to 15o pods, which are flattened, about in. long and 2 in. broad. Another variety, with seeds similar in form and colour to the last, but of much smaller size, is known as the lentillon de Mars. It is sown in spring. This variety and the len tille large are both sometimes called the lentille a la reine. A small variety, lentille verte du Puy, cultivated chiefly in the departments of Haute Loire and Cantal, is also grown as a vegetable and for forage. The Egyptian lentil was introduced into Britain in 182o. It has blue flowers. Another species of lentil, Ervum monanthos, is grown in France about Orleans and elsewhere under the name of jarosse and jarande. It is, according to Vilmorin, one of the best kinds of green food to grow on a poor dry sandy soil; on calcareous soil it does not succeed so well. It is usually sown in autumn with a little rye or winter oats, at the rate of a hectolitre to a hectare.
Lentils are more especially the food of the poor in all countries where they are grown, and have often been spurned when better food could be obtained. The herbage is highly esteemed as green food for suckling ewes and all kinds of cattle (being said to in crease the yield of milk), also for calves and lambs.