62 DARWINISM STATED BY DARWIN HIMSELF. 



From innumerable experiments made 



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through dire necessity by the savages of every 

 land, with the results handed down by tradition, the nu- 

 tritious, stimulating, and medicinal properties of the 

 most unpromising plants were probably first discovered. 

 It appears, for instance, at first an inexplicable fact that 

 untutored man, in three distant quarters of the world, 

 should have discovered, among a host of native plants, 

 that the leaves of the tea-plant and mattee, and the ber- 

 ries of the coffee, all included a stimulating and nutritious 

 essence, now known to be chemically the same. We can 

 also see that savages suffering from severe constipation 

 would naturally observe whether any of the roots which 

 they devoured acted as aperients. We probably owe our 

 knowledge of the uses of almost all plants to man having 

 originally existed in a barbarous state, and having been 

 often compelled by severe want to try as food almost 

 everything which he could chew and swallow. 



SAVAGE WISDOM IN THE CULTIVATION OF PLANTS. 



The savage inhabitants of each land, hav- 

 a§e ' ing found out by many and hard trials what 

 plants were useful, or could be rendered useful by various 

 cooking processes, would after a time take the first step 

 in cultivation by planting them near their usual abodes. 

 Livingstone states that the savage Batokas sometimes left 

 wild fruit-trees standing in their gardens, and occasion- 

 ally even planted them, "a practice seen nowhere else 

 among the natives." But Du Chailha saw a palm and 

 some other wild fruit-trees which had been planted ; and 

 these trees were considered private property. The next 

 step in cultivation, and this would require but little fore- 

 thought, would be to sow the seeds of useful plants ; and, 





