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"[Plin. Nat. 27.21.] - THE APHACA: THREE REMEDIES.
The aphaca has remarkably diminutive leaves, and is but little taller than the lentil. The pods are of a larger size, and enclose some three or four seeds, of a darker colour, moister, and more diminutive than those of the lentil: it grows in cultivated fields. It is naturally more astringent than the lentil, but in other respects is applied to much the same purposes. The seed, used in a decoction, arrests fluxes of the stomach and bowels.
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(The Natural History. Pliny the Elder. John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S. H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A. London. Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. 1855.)