NATURE IN MOTION. 51 



so that it soon spread over the continent, and now sus- 

 tains at least one-third of its inhabitants. This grass 

 also was apparently found growing wild in the Caucasus, 

 but more careful* observations have since shown that the 

 presumed originals were a different species: their stems 

 were so brittle that they could not be threshed. More 

 recently still, oats were brought to Europe from the 

 East, and whilst in Greece they were only used as green 

 fodder, Pliny already represents the Germans as living 

 upon oat groats, a dainty which they have by no means 

 abandoned since. 



Bice seems at a very early period of European history 

 to have acquired no small importance among the more 

 widely diffused grasses. Hence we can more easily follow 

 its gradual migrations from its home in India, to which, 

 even the Sanscrit name Vri points, and where the Danish 

 missionary, Klein, believes that he found it growing wild, 

 to various parts of the world. In the East, we know, 

 it was from the times of antiquity the principal article 

 of food ; at the time of Alexandar the Great it was 

 cultivated as far as the lower Euphrates, and from thence 

 it was carried to Egypt. The Romans do not seem to 

 have known it. The Arabs, however, brought it, after 

 their great conquests in Africa, Sicily, and Spain, to 

 Southern Europe. North America knows it only since 

 the beginning of the last century, but produces now a 

 large proportion of all the rice consumed in the Old 

 World. 



The New World claims maize alone as its own in- 

 digenous product among the nutritious grasses. But even 



