Lentil
2 of the 6 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.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The botany in both entries still holds, though the plant now goes by Lens culinaris rather than Collier's "Ervum lens." The biggest shift is geographic: when these accounts were written the lentil was a crop of "the countries of the Mediterranean and the Orient," whereas Canada and Australia are now among the largest producers and Canada the leading exporter, with India the great consumer. Archaeology has also pushed the plant's history far deeper than 1921 knew, with lentil seeds recovered from Neolithic sites in the Near East dating back some ten thousand years, making it one of the first crops ever domesticated. Collier's "Revalenta arabica" — a lentil-flour patent food sold as a cure-all — has vanished from the shops, and Aiton's charming derivation of "lens" from the shape of the seed remains correct.
Written for this edition, 2026.