388 ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS. 



I consider these two assertions as positive, in spite of the 

 contrary opinion of some authors, and the doubts of 

 the celebrated agriculturist Bonafous, to whom we are 

 indebted for the most complete treatise upon maize." 1 

 I used these words in 1855, after having already contested 

 the opinion of Bonafous at the time of the publication of 

 his work. 2 The proofs of an American origin have been 

 since reinforced. Yet attempts have been made to prove 

 the contrary, and as the French name, ble de Turquie, 

 gives currency to an error, it is as well to resume the 

 discussion with new data. 



No one denies that maize was unknown in Europe at 

 the time of the "Roman empire, but it has been said that 

 it was brought from the East in the Middle Ages. The 

 principal argument is based upon a charter of the thir- 

 teenth century, published by Molinari, 3 according to 

 which two crusaders, companions in' arms of Boniface III., 

 Marquis of Monferrat, gave in 1204* to the town of Incisa 

 a piece of the true cross . . . and a purse containing a 

 kind of seed of a golden colour and partly white, unknown 

 in the country and brought from Anatolia, where it was 

 called meliga, etc. The historian of the crusades, Miehaux, 

 and later Daru and Sismondi, said a great deal about this 

 charter; but the botanist Delile, as well as Targioni- 

 tozzetti and Bonafous himself, thought that the seed in 

 question might belong to some sorghum and not to maize. 

 These old discussions have been rendered absurd by the 

 Comte de Riant's discovery 4 that the charter of Incisa 

 is the fabrication of a modern impostor. I quote this 

 instance to show how scholars who are not naturalists 

 may make mistakes in the interpretation of the names oi 

 plants, and also how dangerous it is to rely upon an isolated 

 proof in historical questions. 



The names ble de Turquie, Turkish wheat (Indian 



1 Bonafons, Hist. Nat. Agric. et conomique du Hais, 1 vol. in folio, 

 Paris and Turin, 1836. 



2 A. de Candolle, Billiothequa Universelle de Geneve, Aug. 1836, 

 Geogr. Bot. JRats., p. 942. 



3 Molinari, Storia $ 'Incisa, Asti, 1810. 



4 Riant, La Charte d'Incisa, 8vo pamphlet, 1877, reprinted from the 

 Revue des Questions Historiyues. 



