150 



WHEAT. 



And accordiDg to Berosus, Mesopotamia aboun- 

 ded with wild wheat amongst the other indigenous 

 phints. 



Abulias says of Osiris — 



T=' 



rrimus aiatra nianu solerti fecit Osiris 

 El teneram ferro sollititavit huinum. 



And Ovid thus speaks of Ceres : 



Prima Ceres unco terram diniovit 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 tact 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, along time 

 before the revolutionarj' war : — " The wild rye 

 which grows every where in the Ohio country, is 

 u 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 ia 



