124 VARIOUS FOOD-PLANTS 
fore more easily remembered) arrangement of the facts in 
our minds. 
Let us first ep ador the plants which were cultivated in 
ancient or in prehistoric times. As used in the tabular 
view the term prehistoric indicates, for plants of the Old 
World, a cultivation of over four thousand years, or in the 
New World of over two thousand years: ancient, means over 
two thousand years for Old World plants, or for New World 
species, a cultivation for more than five hundred years, or 
in some cases for over one thousand years. That is to say, 
the cultivation of the plants designated as prehistoric or 
ancient, preceded or was associated with the earliest civiliza- 
tions of the hemisphere to which they belonged. With refer- 
ence to their native homes we find that these plants fall 
readily into the following groups: — 
I. The Mediterranean Group: plants of which the native 
range fell within, or was adjacent to, the region about the 
eastern end of the Mediterranean sea—the region wherein 
were developed the great Eurasian civilizations of antiquity, ~ 
from which our own is principally derived. The plants in- 
cluded are wheat, barley, oats, rye, chestnut, filbert, walnut, 
almond, pea, beet, turnip, carrot, parsnip, onion, asparagus, 
cabbage, spinach, lettuce, celery, cucumber, egg-plant, apple, 
pear, quince, plum, common cherry, European grape, musk- 
melon, watermelon, lemon, banana, date, fig, and olive. 
Il. The Oriental Group: plants having their native home 
extending within or adjacent to the valleys of the Yangtse- 
Kiang and Hoangho, the seat of the most ancient of oriental 
civilizations. Under this head come rice, radish (?), peach, 
orange, and sugar-cane. 
III. The American Group: plants indigenous to the high- 
lands of tropical America or in lands adjacent thereto, that 
is, within or near the region occupied by the ancient civiliza- 
tions of the Western Hemisphere. This group includes maize, 
peanut, coconut, kidney-bean, Lima bean, sweet potato, white 
potato, pumpkins and squashes, tomato, pineapple, cacao, 
and bitter cassava. 
The plants which are indicated as of modern culture are 
believed not to have been cultivated by the ancients of the 
