Botanists held for a long time that the common haricot was of Indian origin. No one had found it wild, nor has it yet been found, but it was supposed to be of Indian origin, although the species was also cultivated in Africa and America, in temperate and hot regions, at least in those where the heat and humidity are not excessive. I called attention to the fact that there is no Sanskrit name, and that sixteenth-century gardeners often called the species _Turkish bean_. Convinced, moreover, that the Greeks cultivated this plant under the names _fasiolos_ and _dolichos_, I suggested that it came originally from Western Asia, and not from India. Georg von Martens adopted this hypothesis. However, the meaning of the words _dolichos_ of Theophrastus, _fasiolos_ of Dioscorides, _faseolus_ and _phaseolus_ of the Romans,[1701] is far from being sufficiently defined to allow them to be attributed with certainty to _Phaseolus vulgaris_. Several cultivated _Leguminosæ_ are supported by the trellises mentioned by authors, and have pods and seeds of a similar kind. The best argument for translating these names by _Phaseolus vulgaris_ is that the modern Greeks and Italians have names derived from _fasiolus_ for the common haricot. In modern Greek it is _fasoulia_, Albanian (Pelasgic?) _fasulé_, in Italian _fagiolo_. It is possible, however, that the name has been transferred from a species of pea or vetch, or from a haricot formerly cultivated, to our modern haricot. It is rather bold to determine a species of _Phaseolus_ from one or two epithets in an ancient author, when we see how difficult is the distinction of species to modern botanists with the plants under their eyes. Nevertheless, the _dolichos_ of Theophrastus has been definitely referred to the _scarlet runner_, and the _fasiolos_ to the dwarf haricot of our gardens, which are the two principal modern varieties of the common haricot, with an immense number of sub-varieties in the form of the pods and seed. I can only say it may be so. If the common haricot was formerly known in Greece, it was not one of the earliest introductions, for the _faseolos_ did not exist at Rome in Cato’s time, and it is only at the beginning of the empire that Latin authors speak of it. Virchow brought from the excavations at Troy the seeds of several leguminæ, which Wittmack[1702] has ascertained to belong to the following species: broad bean (_Faba vulgaris_), garden-pea (_Pisum sativum_), ervilla (_Ervum ervilia_), and perhaps the flat-podded vetchling (_Lathyrus Cicera_), but no haricot. Nor has the species been found in the lake-dwellings of Switzerland, Savoy, Austria, and Italy.