CHAPTER XXXVI 



ORIGIN OF PLANTS USED BY MAN 



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All about us in forests, fields, orchards, gardens, lawns, and even in 

 test tubes in commercial and research laboratories are numerous plants 

 which man values for the various uses he makes of them. Some of these 



Fig. 195. Iroquois Indians harvesting and preparing corn for storage. Photo from 

 American Museum of Natural History, New York. 



plants are the uncultivated, or wild, species which are either harvested 

 where they are found, or planted where we want them to grow. During 

 the period when the early settlers were invading the American wilder- 

 ness and converting it to famis, some of their domesticated animals sub- 

 sisted mainly on the native wild plants. The pioneers brought seeds of 

 domesticated plants from Europe and also secured seeds of corn and 

 other domesticated plants from the American Indian ( Fig. 195 ) , but for 

 many years wild animals and the fruits and seeds of wild plants were 

 important sources of their food. 



The native vegetation on the farms was destroyed to make room for 

 domesticated plants; but in certain practices, especially those in which 



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