WHEAT. 149 



grown spontaneously) but without much success. 

 The orighia) climate of plants left to nature can- 

 not be a secret, but in countries well peopled, the 

 plants mentioned are not left to nature — the seeds 

 are carefully gathered and stored up for food. 

 As this practice could not fail to make these seeds 

 rare, agricukure was early thought of, vvliich by 

 introducing plants into new soils and new cli- 

 mates, has rendered the original climate obscure. 

 If we can trace that climate it must he in regions 

 destitute of inhabitants, or but thinly peopled, 

 Anson found in the island Juan Fernandez many 

 spots of ground covered with oats. While the 

 French possessed Fort Dauphin, in the island of 

 Madagascar, they raised excellent wheat. That 

 station was deserted many years ago, and wheat 

 to this day grows naturally among the grass in 

 great vigor. In the country about Mount Tabor, 

 in Palestine, barley and oats grow spontaneously. 

 In the kingdom of Siam, there are many spots 

 where rice grows year after year without any cul- 

 ture. Diodorus Siculus is our authority for say- 

 ing, that in the territory of Leontinum and in 

 other places of Sicily, wheat grew wild without 

 any culture. And it does so at present about 

 Mount Etna." Diodorus Siculus also says that 

 Isis was the discoverer of wheat and barley, and 



that Osiris taught the manner of cultivation^ 



H 



