Chick Pea

Chick Pea (Cicer), a genus of the vetch tribe of Leguminosæ. The common chick pea (C. arictinum) is an annual, $1\backslash frac\{1\}\{2\}$ to 2 feet high, of a stiff upright habit, covered with glandular hairs, with inflated pods containing a few angular and wrinkled peas. It is largely cultivated in southern Europe and in many parts of the East, and hence occurs frequently also as a weed in cornfields. It is also grown in Spanish America. Large quantities of the peas are exported from British India under the name of gram, now well known in commerce; but the name is extended to other East Indian kinds of pulse. The peas are used as food, either boiled or roasted, and are the most common parched pulse of the East. They are a notable article of Spanish and French cookery; while their importance in Roman times is evidenced by the phrase, fricti ciceris emptor ('buyer of roasted chick peas'), as a conversational equivalent for a poor fellow. Its cultivation extends as far as southern Germany; but in the climate of Britain it is found too tender to be profitable. The herbage affords fodder, and the seeds are one of the occasional substitutes for coffee. In summer weather drops exude from this plant, which, on drying, leave crystals of almost pure oxalic acid. The too free and prolonged use of chick peas as food is believed to be liable to become the cause of dangerous and obstinate forms of disease.