156 A NEW THEORY OF EVOLUTION. 



< cause, it is remarkable that the new modi- 

 fications unquestionably adapted the Horse 

 more fully for the service of man, and that 

 both first appeared in the same geological 

 period. 



The mystery of domestication is not con- 

 fined to animals. Neither wheat, barley, 

 oats, nor rice is found anywhere growing 

 wild, and neither seed that will produce the 

 cultivated sugar-cane nor seed of the culti- 

 vated banana has yet been discovered. 



Sir Harry Johnston, evidently a believer 

 in Darwin, feels himself unable to explain, 

 by his theory, the peculiar characteristics 

 of the banana, a fruit on which the natives 

 of Uganda largely subsist. 



In his extremely interesting work on 

 Uganda the question is discussed at some 

 length, and we cannot do better than quote 

 his remarks. 



" The cultivated banana," he says, " is 

 possibly not native to Africa in its origin. 

 I believe botanists consider that it first 

 diverged from wild forms of Musa in Eastern 

 Asia, and, like all the other food products 

 cultivated by the negro, travelled to trop- 

 ical Africa from India at some prehistoric 

 period. I too held this opinion once, but I 

 cannot endorse it so heartily now on reflection. 



