THE ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS 143 



gardens and often served as parents for an entirely new race 

 of cultivated plants. 



Many of the food, beverage and textile plants have been 

 under cultivation as long as there has been recorded history; 

 some go even beyond this, so that their origin is shrouded in the 

 mystery of prehistoric civilization. We can arrive, however, at a 

 fairly accurate picture of the origin of most of our cultivated 

 plants by piecing together the evidence from written descriptions 

 and pictures left by the ancients, from the actual remains of 

 plants found in prehistoric dwelling sites, and from a knowledge 



Fig. 85. — The cultivation of plants began independently in each of the three 

 ancient centers of civilization: the Mediterranean, the Oriental and the 

 American. 



of the distribution of all the related living species of a particular 

 cultivated plant. From these sources we can trace the course of 

 plant migrations at the hands of man from their native homes in 

 remote corners of the earth to our orchards and gardens, and 

 eventually to our dinner tables. 



The cultivation of plants is one of the oldest of human occupa- 

 tions. It began more or less independently in each of the three 

 ancient centers of civilization — the Mediterranean, the Oriental 

 and the American (fig. 85). Each of these civilized areas was 

 separated for so many centuries from the others that the native 

 species of each region had already undergone considerable 

 change into cultivated varieties before they became known in 



