150 WHEAT. 



And according to Berosus, Mesopotamia aboun- 

 ded widi wild wheat aiiicngst the other indigenous 

 plants. 



Tibullus says of Osiris — 



Primus aratra manu solertl fecit Osirl:^ 

 Et teneram ferro sollicitavit huimiin. 



And Ovid thus speaks of Ceres : 



Prima Ceres unco terram dimovit aratro 

 Prima dedit leges. 



Why should not wheat grow spontaneously in 

 New-York as well as in Sicily, Egypt, Mesopota- 

 mia, or Siberia? And the evidence of the fact is 

 as complete in this particular as the nature of the 

 case will admit. The plant was found in a wild 

 state in places remote from thick settlement, which 

 had never been cultivated, and it possesses pe- 

 culiar characteristics, and distinctive qualities. 

 Besides rye is found in a wild state, and it was 

 frequently seen growing spontaneously before the 

 settlement of the country. Lt. Governor Mercer, 

 of Virginia, thus writes of this plant, a long time 

 before the revolutionary war : — " The wild rye 

 which grows every where in the Ohio country, is 

 a species of the rye which is cultivated by the Eu- 

 ropeans. It has the same bearded ear, and pro- 

 duces a farinaceous grain. The ear and grain in 



