The Life of the Weevil 



be with a jaw-bone of the Cave-bear,^ 

 whose mighty canine did duty as a plough- 

 share ! 



Where is this plant, the first source of the 

 pea, in the world of spontaneous vegetation? 

 Our regions possess nothing like it. Is it 

 to be found elsewhere? On this point 

 botany is silent, or replies only with vague 

 probabilities. 



For that matter, the same ignorance 

 prevails on the subject of most of our edible 

 plants. Whence comes wheat, the blessed 

 grain that gives us bread? No one knows. 

 Except in the fields tilled by man, you need 

 not look for it in this country. You need 

 not look for it abroad either. In the East, 

 where agriculture had its birth, no botanist 

 ever came across the sacred ear increasing of 

 its own accord on ground not broken by 

 the plough. 



Barley, oats and rye, the turnip and the 

 radish, the beet, the carrot, the pumpkin 

 leave us in a like uncertainty: their origin 

 is unknown, or at most suspected behind the 



3 A very large, prehistoric Bear (Ursus spelceus) 

 whose remains are common in European caves, including 

 those of England. — Translator's Note. 

 230 



