56 OF PLANTS. 



other animals, and may be called forage plants ; others, 

 to yield materials for use in the arts, to furnish oil, sugar, 

 dyes, &c. 



198. Of the origin of some of the cultivated plants 

 very little is known. Wheat is not now found in a 

 wild state ; and the same is true of most of the cereal 

 plants. Indian corn is known to be a native of America, 

 and is thought to have been first carried hence to the 

 Eastern continent. 



199. Those cultivated plants which are to be found in 

 a wild state, have been greatly improved by cultivation, 

 especially by giving them a full supply of all the food 

 they need. The wild carrot has a hard, slender root, 

 containing very little nourishment. The cabbage found 

 wild on the coast of France is a small, sharp-tasted plant, 

 without any of the excellent qualities possessed by the 

 different sorts of the cultivated cabbage. 



The potato, which is found growing spontaneously in 

 the mountains of Peru, and in other parts of America, 

 has there green, bitter, unwholesome tubers, no larger 

 than a chestnut. 



The most striking improvements have been made by 

 the arts of cultivation, by richness of soil and abundance 

 of food, in the fruit of the apple tree. The original tree 

 from which all the others have been derived, is by some 

 persons supposed to be the crab-apple tree, whose fruit is 

 very small and very sour. 



200. The size, sweetness and other excellent qualities 

 of most cultivated plants are thus owing in a great degree 

 to the art and care of the gardener and the husbandman, 

 and would lose those qualities if they were long suffered 

 to remain neglected, left to themselves. 



