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CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN 



March-April, 19i5 



FOOD PLANT CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE MODERN DIETARY FROM BOTH OLD AND NEW WORLDS 



Bv B. E. DAHLGREN 



CHIEF CURATOR, DEPARTMENT OF BOTANY 



Some years ago the Department of Botany 

 gathered into one exhibition case a repre- 

 sentation of the principal vegetables and 

 fruits of the Western Hemisphere. In the 

 course of the four centuries and a half which 

 have elapsed since the discovery of America 



PLAM 1-OOUS Of lUfi 

 (Hall 25) 



OLD WORLD 



almost all of these plant foods have attained 

 world-wide distribution and in many places 

 have become so common that their original 

 American derivation has been forgotten. 

 In parts of Europe, maize or Indian corn is 

 thus popularly attributed to Turkey and 

 called Turkish corn, just as in the United 

 States the Chilean potato is called Irish or, in 

 eastern South America, English. 



Aside from a few small fruits such as the 

 wild strawberry, small blueberries and the 

 like, which in their wild state have a circum- 

 polar distribution, the food plants native to 

 the Western Hemisphere are quite distinct 

 from those of the several continents of the 

 Old Worid. 



On his first contact with the New World, 

 Columbus found the inhabitants of Haiti 

 using vegetable foods that were strange to 

 him. Some of these he carried back with 

 him to Spain. The early explorers who 

 followed in his tracks discovered many other 

 food plants in cultivation and use among the 

 New World natives. This was the case 

 especially among the Aztecs of Mexico and 

 the Incas of Peru, who, as we now know, 

 inhabited areas that have been important 

 centers of origin and dispersal for the New 

 World plants. 



USE OF SOME DELAYED 



The European settlers both in North and 

 South America quickly learned to use many 

 of the vegetable foods of the Indians, includ- 

 ing corn and beans that were commonly 

 grown together, also pumpkin and squash, 

 and, in South America and the West Indies, 

 cassava. Some American food plants, such 

 as the potato, failed to come into general use 

 among the new population in the continent 

 of their origin until after they had been 

 carried to Europe and developed in cultiva- 



tion and popularity there. Largely because 

 of climatic requirements, some American 

 food plants, such as the arracacha of 

 western South America, are still confined 

 chiefly to their original center. Others, 

 such as the chayote and avocado, have only 

 very recently found a somewhat general but 

 still limited acceptance outside of their 

 natural range. 



The Old World food 

 plants are more 

 numerous than those 

 of the New. They 

 have not only origi- 

 nated over a much 

 larger and more diver- 

 sified area but they 

 have unquestionably 

 been subjected to cul- 

 tivation and selection 

 for a much longer 

 time. They include 

 all the small grains, 

 which have been "the 

 staff of life" of man- 

 kind for thousands of years — wheat, rye, 

 barley, oats and rice, millets and sorghum — 

 as well as all the 

 numerous vegetables 

 and fruits found on 

 the continents of 

 Europe, Asia, and 

 Africa, long before the 

 discovery of the 

 Americas. 



The use and culti- 

 vation of most of these 

 antedate all written 

 records and carved 

 inscriptions by so 

 many thousand years 

 that their origins can 

 now be discovered, if 

 at all, only through 



botanical investigation in the various regions 

 where their nearest relatives still exist in the 

 wild state. 



FIVE DISTINCT AREAS 



Recent explorations by Russian botanists 

 in search of plants for their breeding experi- 

 ments indicate the existence of five distinct 

 areas of probable origin and earliest cultiva- 

 tion of the principal crop plants of the East- 

 ern Hemisphere. The location of these areas 

 is shown on the map which forms the last of 

 the murals in the Museum's Hall of Food 

 Plants (Hall 25): 



(1). Southwestern Asia from Transcau- 

 casus to the Hindu Kush Mountains and 

 adjoining northwest India — soft wheat, rye, 

 chick-peas, horsebeans, turnips, carrots, 

 most common fruit trees. 



(2). Southeastern Asia, especially the 

 mountains of eastern and central China — 

 soybeans, millet, naked oats, hull-less barley, 

 jujube, apricot. 



(3). Northwestern Indo-China and Burma 

 — rice, citrus fruits. 



(4). Mediterranean region and mountain- 

 ous parts of northern Africa — olive, fig, large- 

 grained peas, lentils, beet-root. 



(5). The highlands of Abyssinia — barley, 

 durum wheats, ragi and teff, millets, 

 sorghum. 



LARGELY MOUNTAINOUS 



All of these areas are largely mountain 

 and foothill regions, and the earliest culti- 

 vation of food plants appears to have taken 

 place in such terrain rather than in river 

 valleys or on the plains as was formerly 

 assumed on the strength of historical and 

 linguistic studies. 



To the large number of food plants derived 

 from the continental area of the Eastern and 

 Western hemispheres there should be added 

 a relative few that have originated in 

 less important regions. Malaysia and Poly- 

 nesia have thus contributed various edible 

 fruits and tubers; Central and South Africa 

 oka, types of sorghum and melons; 

 Australia and New Zealand, on the other 



PLANT FOODS OF THE NEW WORLD 



(Hall 25) 



hand have contributed very little. 



To the great benefit of the inhabitants of 

 most parts of the world, the food plants of 

 both hemispheres are now cultivated wher- 

 ever climatic conditions permit, while 

 thanks to the impetus of genetics, an inten- 

 sive search constantly goes on for new and 

 improved varieties. 



British Museologists Study Here 

 for Post-War Project 



In preparation for post-war rehabilitation 

 of museums in Great Britain, Sir John 

 Forsdyke, Director of the British Museum 

 in London, and Dr. Henry Thomas, Keeper 

 of Printed Books of that institution, visited 

 this Museum and consulted with various 

 members of its administrative and scientific 

 staff for several days beginning January 25. 

 They are making a tour of the United States 

 and Canada for similar consultations in 

 other leading museums. 



