450 



OBBHX OF CULTIVATED PLANTS, 



finite agreeable to the taste, or textile, tinctorial, oil- 



~ liing drinks by 



producing plants, or yielding 

 infusion or fermentation. There 



are among these only 

 two green vegetables, and no fodder. The orders which 

 predonrinate are tjie Croeifer*, Leguminosae, and Gra- 



The number of annuals is twenty-two out of the 

 inlflbui, or fifty per cent Got of five American species 

 marked D, tiro are annuals. In the category A, there 

 two biennials, and D hat none. Among all the 

 tbe annuals are not more than fifty per 

 the biennials Me or at most two per cent It 

 i* dear thai at the beginning of civilization plant* which 

 yield an immediate return are most prized. They*/ 

 Moreover, this advantage, that their cultivation is easily 

 diffused or increased, either because of the abundance of 

 seed, or the same species mar be grown in summer in the 

 north, and in winter r all the year round in the troics. 



HtrbftftMtf perennial plant* are rare in categories A 

 and D, They are only from two to four per cent,, 

 iirtrftT we include Brwmw oUra&M, and the variety of 

 4ax wirieh is usually perennial (, (wy^ifotiwrrfi, culti- 

 vated by the Swiss laxe-dweller*, In nature herbaceous 

 constitute about forty per cent, of the Phane- 



A and D include tw 

 nine, that is about forty-on* per cent They are in the 

 j^oportk*! of forty-three per cent, of the Phanerogam*, 



Thus the earliest husbandmen employed cK 

 annuals or biennial*, rather fewer woofy *\mvt*, and far 

 fewer nerba&on* perennial*. These di&renc** are du^ 

 to the relative facility of cultivation, and the propArNon 

 f tl* evidently useful species in each division. 



The species of tlie oti world marked B have been in 

 euliivatfofi for more than two thousand years, but per^ 

 oftiMm belong to eategory A, Th American 



