ECONOMIC PLANTS WORTHY OF INTRODUCTION. 33 



of this fact? From the physical and geological nature of Palestine, 

 as has been explained in the introduction, there necessarily resulted 

 a diversity of climates within a very small area, and this diversity 

 of both soil and climate has given rise to a very rich and varied 

 flora and fauna. In the cultivated plants a multiplicity of forms 

 has also been favored by the political as well as by the natural 

 conditions. The country has for centuries been divided among a 

 number of hostile tribes, each one living in a territory of quite 

 definite natural boundaries. The hostility of these neighboring 

 tribes was so great that nearly all commercial relations were de- 

 stroyed, the only interactions being those of warfare. Access to the 

 markets was thereby cut off, and the Arab learned to depend entirely 

 upon the products of his own immediate district. As the same 

 products continued to be cultivated for centuries on the same soils 

 without outside introduction, local races' were necessarily developed. 

 These conditions, which lasted for more than ten centuries in the 

 Orient, are finally rapidly disappearing. 



From a human point of view we have every reason to rejoice at 

 the pacification of the Orient, because of the greater safety to life 

 and property and the better intercourse it has brought about; but 

 from the standpoint of the cultivation of plants we are losing ground, 

 for it is a natural tendency to reject all of the old habits and in so 

 doing to annihilate many of these local races which have been in 

 process of development for so many centuries. This can best be 

 illustrated by the following example: 



When the Jewish colony of Yemma was established at Dalaika, the 

 colonists, who had no feeling of prejudice or hostility toward the 

 Arabs of Nursy and Zeriin, thought it would be an improvement to 

 give up the small-grained Dalaika wheat and to introduce the fine, 

 large-grained wheat from Zeriin. The result, of course, was a fail- 

 ure, because the wheat introduced was not adapted to local climatic 

 conditions. Instead, however, of correctly interpreting their failure, 

 some of the colonists attributed it to the use of European plows, and 

 others to American harrows, both of which had been recently im- 

 ported. (See fig. 10.) I enter into these details in order to show the 

 value of the local products which the Orient has developed during the 

 centuries of stagnation, and also to point out the danger of the de- 

 struction of these races of plants in consequence of the general level- 

 ing which is a necessary accompaniment of national awakening and 

 progress. An early botanical-agronomic exploration of the Orient 

 is therefore necessary. The sooner it is made the greater will be the 

 chances for obtaining valuable races of plants. 



a Tbe importance of this point has been emphasized by A. F. Woods. See 

 Science, n. s., vol 26, no. 069, pp. 541-543; also Report of the National Con- 

 servation Commission, vol. 3, 1909, pp. 146-150. 

 34055°— Bull ISO— 10 3 



