SOME OF THE POSSIBILITIES OF ECONOMIC BOTANY. 625 
every respect. Improvements however are making in many diree- 
tions; and in the cereals we now have, we possess far better and more 
satisfactory material for further improvement, both in quality and as 
regards range of distribution, than we could reasonably hope to have 
from other grasses. 
From the cereals we may turn to the interesting groups of plants 
comprised under the general term. 
Il1.— VEGETABLES. 
Under this term it will be convenient for us to include all plants 
which are employed for culinary purposes or for table use, such as 
salads and relishes. 
The potato and sweet potato, the pumpkin and squash, the red or 
capsicum peppers, and the tomato are of American origin. 
All the others are most probably natives of the Old World. Only 
one plant coming in this class has been derived from southern Aus- 
tralasia, namely, New Zealand spinach (Tetragonia). 
Among the vegetables and salad plants longest in cultivation we 
may enumerate the following: Turnip, onion, cabbage, purslane, the 
large bean (Faba), chick-pea, lentil, and one species of pea—garden pea. 
To these an antiquity of at least four thousand years is ascribed. 
Next to these, in point of age, come the radish, carrot, beet, garlic, 
garden-cress, and celery, lettuce, asparagus, and the leek. Three or 
four leguminous seeds are to be placed in the same category, as are also 
the black peppers. 
Of more recent introduction, the most prominent are the parsnip, 
oyster plant, parsley, artichoke, endive, and spinach. 
From these lists I have purposely omitted a few which belong ex- 
clusively to the tropics, such as certain yams. 
The number of varieties of these vegetables is astounding. It is of 
course impossible to discriminate between closely allied varieties which 
have been introduced by gardeners and seedsmen under different 
names, but which are essentially identical, and we must therefore have 
recourse to a conservative authority, Vilmorin,* from whose work a few 
were the six-rowed barley and small ‘ Lake Dwellers’” wheat. The discovery of 
Egyptian wheat (Triticum turgidum) at Wangen and Robenhausen is particularly 
interesting. Oats were cultivated during the bronze age, but are absent from all 
the stone age villages. Rye was also unknown,” p. 216. ‘ Wheat is most common, 
having been discovered at Merlen, Moosseedorf, and Wangen. At the latter place, 
indeed, many bushels of it were found, the grains being in large, thick lumps. In 
other cases the grains are free, and without chaff, resembling our present wheat in 
size and form, while more rarely they are still in the ear.” One hundred and fifteen 
species of piants have been identified. Heer Keller. 
* Les Plantes Potagéres, Vilmorin, Paris. Translated into English under the direc- 
tion of W. Robinson, editor of the (London) ‘‘ Garden,” 1885, and entitled The Veg- 
etable Garden. 
H. Mis. 334, \pt. 140 
