164 CHAPTER XXI L 



early days of Spring. This Draba is, of course, a 

 common British plant. 



Hard by is a little grass, also quite inconspicuous ; 

 nevertheless I do not exaggerate when I assert that it 

 may well be the most important herb that grows. For 

 ^Egilops (Fig. 63) is thought by De Candolle to be the 

 origin of our cultivated wheat. If this be so, we must 

 believe that some prehistoric benefactor of humanity 

 noticed the grain of this little grass to be large out 

 of all proportion to the leaf and stem, and that he 

 conceived the wonderful plan of developing this plant 

 into a food supply for millions, and a bulwark against 

 famine for all future generations. 



Little did this skin-clad savage dream, as he 

 watched and tended the JEgilops, choosing each year the 

 finest grains to sow afresh, and guarding the precious 

 plant against all danger of a cross from its uncultivated 

 relatives little could he imagine that he was following 

 out a scientific process of natural selection, and trying 

 the most interesting experiment which has ever 

 suggested itself to the mind of man. Here was 

 research unattended with suffering and torture, wholly 

 beneficent, and yet quite unendowed. For this man, 

 though we know not when and where he lived, laid 

 the first foundations of agriculture, made civilization 

 possible, and so increased a thousandfold both the 

 good and the evil of this mortal life. In some parts of 

 Italy this grass is gathered, and the grain is separated 

 by setting fire to the ears ; the seeds then fall out 

 slightly roasted. Corn parched or scorched in this way 

 is still a favourite article of food in some parts of the 

 East. Confer Virgil, ^n. i. 179 ; Euth ii. 14, &c. 



So much for the ^Egilops ; but it has no flower, 



