v THE SPREADING OF FOOD-PLANTS 51 



the New Worlds was late, but it was otherwise 

 with the plants of the Mediterranean basin and 

 those of China. Here no great expanse of ocean 

 separated the countries. Intercourse was compara- 

 tively easy, and though China did not formerly, and 

 still does not, love the outside world, she was 

 willing enough to exchange useful plants. For 

 example, some two hundred years before Christ, 

 that is, more than two thousand years ago, a 

 Chinese ambassador called Chang-Kien came across 

 the great wastes to Western Asia to observe the 

 ways of the outside world, and he took back with 

 him to China many useful plants. Rather a mixed 

 lot he collected, for we learn that in his capacious 

 box were beans and peas, cucumber and saffron, 

 lucerne and walnuts, spinach and water-melons. 

 A large case it must have been, that in which he 

 brought back the fruits of his ten years' wandering, 

 for he w r as in no hurry, and saw many things on 

 his journey ! 



This was a big journey, but there were always 

 merchants travelling between east and west, and it 

 was doubtless by their help that the cultivated 

 plants of the two regions became so mingled that 

 it is very difficult for us now to say definitely 

 which was first cultivated in the east and -which in 

 the west. 



In early days it was much easier to introduce 



