Lentil
2 of the 7 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Lentil. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a small branching plant, side and pale blue about a foot and a half high; the leaves and short conwith 8 to 12 oblong leaflets, and pale blue seeds. In or fo flowers in twos and threes, and short prohed in a legumes with two to four seeds. In and ishing food, Egypt and Syria lentils, parched in a going on long confrying-pan, are sold as nourishing food, and Germany three conespecially for those who are going on long ted, the small brown, journeys. In France and Germany three st flavored and the varieties are cultivated, the small brown, d soups; the yellowwhich is the lightest flavored and the little larger and the a best for haricots and soups; the yellowlentil of Provence, the ish one, which is a little larger and the pea, with luxuriant apnext best, and the lentil of Provence, ed for fodder than nearly as large as a pea, with luxuriant om the seeds of lenstraw, and more suited for fodder than enta arabica. The ., for human food. From the seeds of lenre Ervum lens, the tils is prepared Revalenta arabica. The Jacob was comlentils of Scripture were Ervum lens, the xxv. 34; II Sam, red pottage made by Jacob was comthe posed of them (G ( Gen. xxv. 34; II Sam. dexviii: 11; Ezek. iv: 9).
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a slight plant of the pea family. Lentil pods are short, broad, and very flat, containing two seeds. Lentils are a considerable article of food in the countries of the Mediterranean and the Orient. More people eat lentils than eat beans. Some are gray, others red. The mess of red pottage for which Esau sold Jacob his birthright is said to have been made of red lentils. The astronomer who ground a round piece of glass until it was thin at the edge and thick in the middle, like the familiar seeds that thickened his soup, called his new invention a lens or lentil.