124 VARIOUS FOOD-PLANTS 



fore more easily rememliered) arrangement of the facts in 

 our minds. 



Let us first consider the plants which were cultivated in 

 ancient or in prehistoric times. As used in the tabular 

 view the term prehistoric indicates, for plants of the Old 

 World, a cultivation of over four thousand years, or in the 

 New World of over two thousand years : ancient, means over 

 two thousand j-ears for Old World plants, or for New World 

 species, a cultivation for more than five hundred years, or 

 in some cases for over one thousand years. That is to say, 

 the cultivation of the plants designated as prehistoric or 

 ancient, preceded or was associated with the earliest civiliza- 

 tions of the hemisphere to which the}' belonged. With refer- 

 ence to their native homes we find that these plants fall 

 readily into the following groups : — 



L The Meditcrranemi Group: plants of which the native 

 range fell within, or was adjacent to, the region about the 

 eastern end of the Mediterranean sea — the region wherein 

 were developed the great Eurasian civilizations of antiquity, 

 from which our own is principally derived. The plants in- 

 cluded are wheat, barley, oats, rye, chestnut, filbert, walnut, 

 almond, pea, beet, turnip, carrot, parsnip, onion, asparagus, 

 cabbage, spinach, lettuce, celery, cucumber, egg-plant, apple, 

 pear, quince, plum, common cherry, European grape, musk- 

 melon, watermelon, lemon, banana, date, fig, and olive. 



IL The Oriental Group: plants having their native home 

 extending within or adjacent to the valleys of the Yangtse- 

 Kiang and Hoangho, the seat of the most ancient of oriental 

 civihzations. Under this head come rice, radish (?), peach, 

 orange, and sugar-cane. 



in. The American Group: plants indigenous to the high- 

 lands of tropical America or in lands adjacent thereto, that 

 is, within or near the region occupied by the ancient civiliza- 

 tions of the Western Hemisphere. This group includes maize, 

 peanut, coconut, kidney-bean, Lima bean, sweet potato, white 

 potato, pumpkins and squashes, tomato, pineapple, cacao, 

 and bitter cassava. 



The plants which are indicated as of modern culture are 

 believed not to have been cultivated bv the ancients of the 



