248 THE PI.ANT WORLD 



somehow it lifts our thoughts above the earth, for along with the pussy- 

 willows and the alder catkins, it announces the sure approach of the 

 fickle maiden Spring. One leaves the swamp with the stirrings of hope 

 that these harbingers alwaj's awaken, when lo ! in the distance the plain- 

 tive warble of the bluebird makes assurance sweetly sure — the winter is 

 over and gone, the song of the bluebird is heard in the land. Jaded, 

 indeed, must be the ear on which this loved note falls if the hearing of 

 it does not thrill to the very core of one's being. 



Tanier, the Oldest Crop. 



By O. W. Barrett. 



Of all the plants which made life possible to the wild men of Old 

 Caribea, the handiest was undoubtedly the Tanier. It grew in the loose 

 alluvium along the forest streams and its tempting tubers were continually 

 in evidence to the savage ancestors of the forefathers of the Arawaks. 

 The idea of the goodness of these roots once grasped, a few worthless 

 plants pulled out from among the edible ones, a sprouting tuber fragment 

 purposely trodden into the soil — and agriculture was begun. 



There is very good reason, as Mr. O. F. Cook has shown,* for believ- 

 ing that the cultivation of economic plants originated in Tropical America ; 

 and in many ways the Tanier appears to have been cultivated longer than 

 any other plant in this region. Nearly all the cultivated plants of the 

 world readily produce seed ; but the Tanier, though flowering under 

 favorable circumstances, has entirely lost its natural power to ripen seeds. 

 Some varieties of the yams, the sweet potatoes, and even of the banana 

 occasionally bear seeds in the home of the Tanier ; but many of their 

 varieties have been introduced from other regions and their varieties are 

 not so numerous in islands like Jamaica and Porto Rico as those of the 

 Tanier. 



As a vegetable slave this remarkable old crop has been spared the fate 

 of most economics — exile from its own home ; for, strange as it may 

 seem, the Tanier still remains almost unknown outside of Tropical 

 America. Other food-plants have been carried to the far corners of the 

 earth ; others less easily propagated and less productive, like the taro 

 and the yam, have become staple articles in all hot countries, Central 

 America included. This apparently paradoxical fact will undoubtedly be 

 explained when the history of agriculture is better known. 



The family Araceae is one of the most interesting and important in 

 the realm of plants ; the genius Colocasia alone includes about fifty edible 



*" The American Origin of Agriculture," Popular Science Monthly, October,. 1903. 



