688 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



nut, the plum, the apricot, the peach, the cherry, etc. In extend- 

 ing their domination from one extremity of the ancient world to 

 the other, the Arabs still found something to glean, and the Cru- 

 saders took numeroiis loans from them. Europe then acquired 

 rice, sugar cane, and the orange. Finally, since the great expedi- 

 tions of the Renaissance, the flora of the entire world has been put 

 under contribution. The Romans caused trees loaded with fruit 

 to figure in their triumphs, in testimony, Pliny says, of a victory 

 which had been gained over Nature not less than over men. Thus, 

 wherever civilization established itself it sought, in order to make 

 itself welcome and its presence a blessing, to lavish upon the new 

 lands the gains which it had accumulated in its former cultiva- 

 tions. Like the gods of other days, when they descended among 

 men, it appeared with its hands full of precious gifts. This propa- 

 gation of useful plants is of itself so great a benefit that it com- 

 pensates, and more, for all the evil that civilization has been 

 accused of spreading. 



During the course of the subjection of the vegetable world to 

 our use, the conquest has followed an order upon which the docu- 

 ments of the past do not always cast a sufficient light, but of 

 which it i^ possible to restore the stages by means of a logical in- 

 duction, while bearing in mind the urgency of the needs, the diffi- 

 culties of cultivation, and the complexity of the uses. The first 

 plants which man interested himself in propagating were those 

 which would assure his subsistence, for the demands of hunger 

 are the most imperious. Then came economical and medicinal 

 plants. The industrial species usually belong to a later stage. 

 Ornamenta;l and fanciful species were a late gain and the luxury 

 of an already rich civilization. 



SuEss, in his book, The Face of the Earth, and Neumayr, accepting the Chal- 

 dean story of the flood as the original version of the Mosaic account, held that it 

 was a local event in the plains of the Euphrates and Tigris, and that view has 

 prevailed extensively. Richard Hennig, however, discussing the subject in the 

 German Weekly Magazine of Science, argues in favor of the independent origins 

 of the flood stories found among so many peoples, and associates it with some of 

 the striking phenomena of the Ice age which indicate a general increase of rain- 

 fall and lowering of temperature during the Quaternary period. Isolated lands 

 Egypt, for instance far from these influences, remained free from interrup- 

 tion. The accounts in the German Saga would apply weU as descriptions of 

 such a period. 



Of the people of Montenegro, Mr. W. H. Cozens-Hardy says that every man, 

 even the poorest, has the bearing and dignity of a gentleman. Education is uni- 

 versal and compulsory on all children over seven. Theft is unknown, and drunk- 

 enness unheard of. Women are universally respected; a woman goes in safety 

 where no man dares. 



