PLANTS CULTIVATED FOR THEIR SEEDS. 373 



in the east of Europe, where history points to an ancient 

 cultivation, rye finds at the present day the most favour- 

 able conditions for living without the aid of man. It 

 can hardly be doubted, from these facts, that its original 

 area was in the region comprised between the Austrian 

 Alps and the north of the Caspian Sea. This seems 

 the more probable that the five or six known species of 

 the genus Secale inhabit western temperate Asia or the 

 south-east of Europe. 



Admitting this origin, the Aryan natives would not 

 have known the species, as philology already shows us ; 

 but in their migrations westward they must have met 

 with it under difierent names, which they transported 

 here and there. 



Common Oats and Eastern Oats — A vena sativa, Lin- 

 naeus ; Avena orientalis, Schreber. 



The ancient Egyptians and the Hebrews did not 

 cultivate oats, but they are now growTi in Egj-pt.^ There 

 is no Sanskrit name, nor any in modern Indian languages. 

 They are only now and then planted by the English in 

 India for their horses.^ The earliest mention of oats 

 in China is in an historical work on the period 618 to 907 

 A.D. ; it refers to the variety known to botanists as 

 Arena sativa nuda.^ The ancient Greeks knew the 

 genus very well ; they called it hromos,^ as the Latins 

 called it avena; but these names were commonly applied 

 to species which are not cultivated, and which are weeds 

 mixed with cereals. There is no proof that they culti- 

 vated the common oats. Pliny's remark^ that the 

 Germans lived on oatmeal, implies that the species was 

 not cultivated by the Romans. 



The cultivation of oats was, therefore, practised an- 

 ciently to the north of Ital}^ and of Greece. It was 

 difi"used later and partially in the south of the Roman 

 empire. It is possible that it was more ancient in Asia 

 Minor, for Galen ^ says that oats were abundant in 



^ Schweinfurth and Aschersoii, Beitrage zur Fl. ^thiop., p. 298. 



2 Royle, III, p. 419. 



^ Bret Schneider, On Study and Value, etc., pp. 18, 44. 



* Eraas, Syn. Fl. Class., -p. 303 ; Lenz, Bot. der Alien, p. 243. 



^ Pliny, Hist., lib. sviii. cap. 17. ^ Galen, De Alimentis, lib. i. cap. 12. 



