June r, 1883.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



965 



THE ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS. 



From a review in Nature of De OandoUe's latest work, 

 we extract some very interesting details : — 



"An English vegetable garden," says Mr. Tyler, "is a 

 curious study for the botanist, who assigns to each plant 

 its proper home; and to the philologist, who traces its 

 name." 15ut De CandoUe, not confining himself to our 

 temperate pot-herbs, has included in his studies the cult- 

 ivated plants of all countries. Accm-ate knowledge iu this 

 matter is a thing of comparatively recent growth. Lin- 

 n^us bestowed no pains upon it. Humboldt iu 1807 dis- 

 missed it as an impenetrable secret. De Candolle has now 

 ilisoussed no le.ss than 247 species. It is curious — perhaps 

 significant— to note that 199 of these trace back to the 

 Old World; only 45 are American, and 3 doubtfiU. Nei- 

 ther the tropical nor the southern regions of either hemi- 

 sphere have any of these .species in common. The northern 

 liave five which are so, but it goes with the rest of the 

 facts that the domestication of these belongs to the Old 

 World, and to this De Candole has accordingly credited 

 them. Some things no doubt have escaped him, although 

 the Ust is remarkably complete. Perhaps the most ciu'ious 

 omission is rhubarb, the use of which for the table seems 

 pretty much confined to Englaud and Holland.* 



It is rather to be regretted that De Oaud911e has aban- 

 doned the attempt to indicate the points on the earth's 

 sm-face from which the maximum number of cultivated 

 plants appear to have sprung. He contents himself with 

 saying that the original distribution of the stocks of cult- 

 ivated plants is most irregular. " It had no relation with 

 the needs of man supplied nor with the area of origin." 

 I have a decided suspicion that the facts might be made 

 to yield a different result. There does not seem any a 

 priori reason why plants susceptible of useful development 

 under cultivation should be so arbitrarily distributed. The 

 number of species domesticated in a given area would, 

 other things being equal, seem to be related to the in- 

 telligence of the races working on them. North America 

 has only given us the vegetable marrow and the Jerusalem 

 artichoke; and neither deserve more than a succes (/' estimc. 

 But our best domesticated plants have developed their 

 merits pari passu with the races that educated them. If 

 we stumbled now agamst the primitive stoclvs they might 

 seem as little susceptible of development as the plants of 

 the United .States, whose capabilities we rank so low. 

 But had the Old AVorld races been but early enough on 

 the New World soil to work out theii- progress to civiliz- 

 ation, possibly the balance in the proportion of domesticated 

 plants woidd have been redressed. If the gardens of the 

 United States are filled with Old World vegetables, the 

 houses are inhabited by an Old AVorld stock. The two 

 things seem to me to go together; the indigenous races 

 could neither develop their latent vegetables nor hold 

 their own'against an Old World human invasion. 



The cu'cumstances of domestication, however, impose 

 certain onditions which the flora drawn upon must fultil. 

 The early stages of civilisation were probably unsited to 

 any fixity of abode. Tylor, it is true, remarks that '■ even 

 very rude people mostly plant a little." But they wiU plant 

 only what will give a quick return, and the quaUties of 

 foresight as well as a permanent social structure must be 

 developed before men would have the disposition to plant 

 fruit trees, which perhaps only their de.scendants would 

 gather from. The first domesticated plants must have been 

 those that were in themselves succulent, or would in the 

 course of a single season j-ield some desired product. We 

 find then that out of the 44 species, the cultivation of which 

 in the Old World goes hack to the dawn of civilisation, half 

 are annuals ; and these are just what the great temperate flora 

 of the northern hemisphere would supply. On the other hand, 

 Patagonia and South Africa have not yielded a single dom- 

 esticated plant. Australia only contributes the overrated 

 Eticali/pttis f/lobuhts^ and New Zealand a \vretched spinach 

 (leiroffonia). But then, as De Candolle remarks, their 

 floras are destitute of the tviies of (Iratitintue, Lci/in>niios(P, 

 and Cri'riferip^ which were available in the northern hemi- 

 sphere, and predominate in the Ust of the 44 most anciently 

 cultivated plants. As between the north and the south 



» No : in the United States they call it " the pie plant " 



Ed. 



I think this argument is vahd. But as between the east 

 and the west in the north hemisphere, since the ,S 

 features of the flora are radically the same, any siS 

 explanation does not hold. •' "'""'"r 



With regard to such of these primitive cultures as belom? 

 to the temperate regions of the Old ^YoM, it will bf 

 interesting to give De CandoUe's conclusions. The turn n 

 and rapeseed (not however sustainable as distinct spedes^ 

 originated in Northern Eiu-ope. The cabbage was derived 

 from the western coasts of Em-ope, where its wild ^+^1 

 may .still be fo.md; it was first gathered and then ™ti;ttc.d 

 by pre-Aryan races. Pmslane is wild from the " S 

 Himalayas to Greece. The onion was brought from Wester 

 A.sia. As to textiles, the origin of flax is sm.„.n.h=+ tstciii 

 ated. The iirhabitan'ts of tlfe Swls ^ILXet^-™!^ - 

 Stone Age did not use our present annual fllx but a 

 subperennial sort mdigenous to Southern Europe (Li„J 

 a,,,„pol,um). This was displaced by Linu,u nJuatiJlZ' 

 a native of countries south of the Caspian, wWch w^s 

 introduced into Europe and India by Aryan races Thl 

 knowledge of hemp seems to have been br^Tt iWn F„ ^ 

 by the Scythi,™s about 1,500 B.C.; therH" no trace oT'lt 

 m the Swiss lake-dweUings. The vhie is indigenous in 



hi Wb i""' ''''™?' «' "'"•^"^ "■•'™«' *° varions^eoTmLes 

 by both Aryan and Semitic races; but it did not iZ^h 

 China before 122 b. c. " '!• uio not reach 



The almond, although so characteristic of Mediterranean 

 eouutnes, seems to be a native of Western Asia, and perham 

 Greece. As late as the time of PUny the fruits wer, wZ 

 to the Komans as Nuces gr<ic<,. The wild stocks 5 o^ 

 pears and apples seem to have been indieenous tn «";•, 

 Europe and Western Asia before the A ytn nvasion tb " 

 remains abomid in the Swiss lake-dwelhCs The ' .^n"'" 

 IS a native of North Persia, but seems to have been intro? 

 into Eastern Europe in pre-Hellenic times Rema ns of a 

 form of the pomegranate have been found in strata of the 

 Pleioceue age in Southern France by Saporta- hut if .i- I 

 out and was reintroduced from coun^tilfldliiSr Persia 

 in prehistoric times into tie Mediterranean re^ou of wS 

 It IS now so characteristic a feature. The Dnmitivo h 

 of the olive was apparently the ea'^tern shor^ "The JM 

 terranean, where.the Greeks discovered its useful qu,Uities 

 the Romans learning them later. The fig has left ^t' 

 remains in quaternary rocks in France along^vith the teeth 

 of hlepMs prrmujenm.., but its prehistoric home must be 

 sought in the Southern Mediterranean shores and knds 

 where it sm-vived after probably perishing in France The 

 common bean (Foha riOnari,) seems to hale become extinct 

 m a ^Vlld state; itmay have originated south of thTcasSan 

 and was introduced mto Europe by the .\ryans The re- 

 mams of lentils have been found in lake-d^^ellmgs of the 

 Bronze Age, and it was probably imligenous in Western 

 Asia Greece and Italy before its cultivation in these 

 countries; subsequently it was introduced into Eirvpt Tb„ 

 chick-pea was carried from the south of the (iueasusby 

 the Aryans to India and Eiurope. The carnh ;« ;„ v ^ 

 to the Ei.ternMediterraneaa,wLncJthec":ek:," r^^^^^^^^^^^ 

 It mto Italy and the Arabs into We.,tern Europe De 

 Candolle regards _aU the various kinds of wheat as dervatives 

 of the smaU-grained kind fomid in the most ancient lake! 

 dwellings of ■^^ estern Switzerland. He inclines tn tb » K i ■ r 

 that the mid stock of this originated h,AT°„.''^ 

 wh«-e it may still exist. The origin'^^t-ItTs ^'r^XuS' 

 and It may possibly be an ancient cultivated derivative' 

 from the wheat stock. As to barley, the inhnb,Wc j 

 the Swiss lake-dwellmgs cultivated bo'^h Z Wr^^'^? 

 the six-rowed kinds. The former is found «„„„♦ ? 



in the area between the Red Sea 'liun'h'e Ta^X" bu? 

 nothing IS k-uom, of the spontaneous occurrence of the latter 

 or of th- four-rowed kind. Either then both were derivatives 

 in prehistoric times of the two-rowed variety or thefire 

 the cultivated representatives of species whi -h hav e si^e 

 become extinct. As to rye, probabUity points U,^^^l^T 

 in Sonth-E..steru Europe. Th^- lake-dw^lC e -e^oX a^e 

 of Bronze did not know it, but Plinv mentions its cultivattfn 

 near Tunn. De Candolle supposes that the ta u^'^^^Z 

 westward met with it in Eiu-ope and carried it ™wa°T 

 Oats seem also to have originated in Eastei-n Em-op, "Ihev 

 are found not ..arlu-r than the lironze Age in S>X'rla,uf 

 Fioin Phiiys nientiou that the (Jermans used oai 

 meal It is concluded that it was not cultivated by the 



