224i THE KITUEAL HISTORY EETIEW. 



rence in tlie cliances of a single one finding its way among the 30 

 species, and of not one doing so, is surely the smallest possible. 



Among the conclusions drawn by Dr. Planchon from the consi- 

 deration of these remains, there are some which are of considerable 

 importance in the determination of a much disputed question in 

 vegetable biology. There are four plants of most ancient cultivation 

 in southern Europe, the vine, the fig, the olive, and the bay (or 

 ancient laurel), which are also found wild in the same countries 

 under conditious which have rendered it doubtful how far they are 

 really iudigenous, at least in the south of Trance. The w41d vine is 

 now not uncommon about Montpellier, and indeed much further 

 north in hedges, bushy ravines, and here and there in open woods, 

 the wild fig in waste and rocky ^jlaces, especially in or near ruins and 

 abandoned rocky patches of cultivation ; the wild olive, less frequent 

 in warmer rocks or close to plantations, each of these in the wild 

 state presenting differences from the cultivated ones in foliage, habit 

 and produce; which have given rise to three different hypotheses, 

 each of which has its warm supporters. 1. That the wild indivi- 

 duals are the degenerate offspring of the introduced cultivated 

 races. 2. That they are really indigenous and i epresent the native 

 origin of the cultivated races. 3. That they are indigenous and 

 specifically distinct from the cultivated ones. The cultivation of all 

 three, especially of the vine ^ and the fig, is connected wdth the 

 earliest records of the human race in the Mediterranean region. 

 That of the Baytree is also very ancient ; it certainly appears to 

 have been frequently planted by the early Greeks. Pliny tells us 

 that in his days " Conservari alitem et sobolem jussere aruspices, 

 ramumque ejus seri, ac rite custodiri. Quod factum est in villa 

 Csesarum .... mireque silva provenit." It was also much planted in 

 the south in the middle ages, probably more than at the present 

 day ; but it is also wild, in a form not distinguishable from the cul- 

 tivated one. In many parts of Italy it is generally believed to be 

 truly indigenous, but in France its occurrence chiefly about old 

 habitations has led to an opinion frequently expressed that it is 

 everyw^here a remnant of cultivation, sown perhaps by birds in the 

 vicinity of the originally planted bushes. Dr. Planchon, however, 

 classes it amongst the old indigenous species, gradually withdrawing 

 from the Montpellier district. " In Magnol's time (the l7th century), 

 it reckoned still some specimens near Castelnau. It is now only 

 found on the northern declivity of the St. Loup, and in the gorge of 



