CULTIVATED PLANTS. 135 



English, and German books of reference. He does not appear, 

 however, to have had access to all the works of Royle and others 

 in our own country, which have thrown so much light on the 

 botany of the Bible, and of the early Asiatic nations, nor yet to 

 numerous memoirs on detached points, which have appeared in 

 L'rench and German Transactions and periodicals. He is 

 thoroughly acquainted with the agricultural botany of his own 

 country, but has necessarily but a slight knowledge of the actual 

 Horas of those Eastern regions wliich are supposed to have 

 poured forth so many vegetable treasures. Whilst, therefore, 

 he has in the present work collected a great mass of valuable 

 historical information, which should be consulted by all who are 

 engaged in these investigations, he has contributed comparatively 

 little to the solution of our third question. 



Following the order he has adopted, partly systematical partly 

 economical, though scarcely definite enough to be called a method, 

 the GraniinecB and especially the Cerealia, as the most im- 

 portant, are the first treated of, although with less detail than 

 some others. No conclusion is come to as to the real origin of 

 our four staple species, Wheat, Barley, Rye, and Oats. They 

 are all shown to have been amongst the earliest grains culti- 

 vated in Italy ; it is admitted that none of the indications of 

 stations where they have been supposed to have been indigenous 

 are to be relied upon, yet it seems still to be presumed that 

 these cultivated forms are distinct species, which still exist, or 

 have existed, wild in some hitherto unknown regions, with the 

 same characters which they exhibit in our fields. The recent 

 investigations of Mr. Fabre, of Agde, as to the effect of culti- 

 vation upon jEyilops, and the conclusions to be deduced from 

 them, if accurate, appear to be unknown to him. Yet, however 

 little the remarkable changes observed by Mr. Fabre may be 

 credited by some, they bear so sti'ongly upon the question, 

 that, until refuted, they must be taken into account by all who 

 would write on the subject." We ourselves have no hesitation 



* The various specimens of ^gilops grown in the botanical garden of 

 Avignon, where the late M. Requien had bestowed particular attention to 

 the genus, showed modifications produced by culture which were many 

 years since most puzzling to us as to the intermediates between ^Egilops 

 ovata and Triticum sativum. One great character relied upon as the 

 strongest proof of the impossibility of their having a common origin, the 

 articulation of the rachis in JEriilops, has alwHj's a tendency to disap- 

 pear by luxuriant cultivatiou, not only ia the ears of the GraminecB, but 

 also in the pods of Lrcjununosce and Orucifcrce, and in other parts of various 



