LITERARY NOTICES. 



707 



naeus's indications of the original home of cultivated 

 plants are incomplete or incorrect. His statements 

 have since been repeated, and, in spite of what 

 modern writers have proved touching several spe- 

 cies, they are still repeated in periodicals and popu- 

 lar works. It is time that mistakes, which date in 

 some cases from the Greeks and Romans, should be 

 corrected. The actual condition of science allows 

 of such correction, provided we rely upon evidence 

 of varied character, of which some portion is quite 

 recent, and even unpublished ; and this evidence 

 should be sifted as we sift evidence in historical re- 

 search. It is one of the rare cases in which a science 

 founded on observation should make use of testi- 

 monial proof. It will be seen that this method leads 

 to satisfactory results, since I have been able to de- 

 termine 'the origin of almost all the species, some- 

 times with absolute certainty, and sometimes with 

 a high degree of probability. 



The investigations of De Candolle as- 

 sume a new and enlarged interest from the 

 results of modern biological progress in re- 

 gard to the transformations of species, and 

 the vast periods of time during which or- 

 ganic development and mutations have been 

 going forward. The great problem was fun- 

 damentally changed with the abandonment 

 of the old view regarding the immutability 

 of species. It was under the careful study 

 of plants that that view first broke down, 

 and from that time a radically new method 

 has prevailed in the study of the vegetable 

 kingdom. From this point of view the his- 

 torical question of the origin of cultivated 

 plants not only became a modern question, 

 belonging, indeed, to the present age, and 

 incapable of earlier solution, but it connects 

 itself with vast periods of change, and is 

 linked on to the largest considerations of 

 the economy of life upon the earth. We 

 quote some further instructive observations 

 of our author in regard to important particu- 

 lars of his research : 



I have endeavored to establish the number of 

 centuries or thousands of years during which each 

 species has been in cultivation, and how its culture 

 spread in ditferent directions at successive epochs. 

 A few plants cultivated for more than two thousand 

 years, and even some others, are not now known in 

 a spontaneous, that is, wild condition, or at any 

 rate this condition is not proved. Questions of this 

 nature are settled. They, like the distinction of 

 species, require much research in books and her- 

 baria. I have even been obliged to appeal to the 

 courtesy of travelers or botanists in all parts of the 

 world to obtain recent information. I shall mention 

 these in each case, with the expression of my grate- 

 ful thanks. 



In spite of these records and of all my re- 

 searches there still remain several species which 



are unknown wild. In the cases where these come 

 from regions not completely explored by botanists, 

 or where they belong to genera as yet insufficiently 

 studied, there is hope that the wild plant may be 

 one day discovered. But this hope is fallacious in 

 the case of well-known species and countries. Wo 

 are here led to form one of two hypotheses : either 

 these plants have since history began so changed in 

 form in their wild as well as in their cultivated con- 

 dition that they are no longer recognized as belong- 

 ing to the same species, or they are extinct species. 

 The lentil, the chick-pea, probably no longer exist 

 in nature ; and other species, as wheat, maize, the 

 broad bean, carthamine, very rarely found wild, ap- 

 pear to be in coarse of extinction. The number of 

 cultivated plants with which I am here concerned 

 being 249, the three, four, or five species, extinct or 

 nearly extinct, is a large proportion, representing a 

 thousand species out of the whole number of pha- 

 nerogams. This destruction of forms must have 

 taken place during the short period of a few hundred 

 centuries, on continents where they might have 

 spread, and under circumstances which are com- 

 monly considered unvarying. This shows how the 

 history of cultivated plants is allied to the most im- 

 portant problems of the general history of organized 

 beings. 



From these considerations it will be seen 

 that the present volume is of capital inter- 

 est to all concerned with botanical science. 

 It is an authoritative digest of facts to be 

 nowhere else found, and has been executed 

 with the strictest fidelity to the original 

 sources of information. The fullness and 

 minuteness of the references to works con- 

 sulted greatly enhance the scientific value 

 of the volume, and will undoubtedly be 

 much appreciated by botanical students. 



But, as we remarked at the outset, the 

 book is entirely popular, and thoroughly in- 

 telligible to common readers. Its plan is 

 simple. Part I consists of two chapters of 

 general preliminary remarks as to I, " In 

 what Manner and at what Epochs Cultiva- 

 tion began in Different Countries " ; and II, 

 " Methods for discovering or proving the 

 Origin of Species." In Part II, the main 

 portion of the work, the divisions are sim- 

 ple and practicable, as follows : I, " Plants 

 cultivated for their Subterranean Parts, 

 such as Roots, Tubercles, or Bulbs " ; II, 

 "Plants cultivated for their Stems or 

 Leaves " ; III, " Plants cultivated for their 

 Flowers, or the Organs which envelop 

 them " ; FV, " Plants cultivated for their 

 Fruits " ; V, " Plants cultivated for their 

 Seeds." At the close there is a valuable 

 table summing up the general results, which 

 is followed by a careful index. All the 



