298 THE HISTORY OF 



plants, confined to a narrow region of distribution, which 

 was taken possession of at an early period by a strongly 

 developing population, have actually wholly disappeared 

 from our earth in the character of originally wild plants. 



The oldest kind of Corn are, without doubt, Wheat and 

 Spelt, which are mentioned even in Homer as Bread-corn ; 

 and Barley, with which Homer's heroes, like the in- 

 habitants of southern Europe in the present day, foddered 

 their horses. First in the time of Galen was Rye intro- 

 duced into Greece by way of Thrace. Various kinds of 

 Oats were cultivated in Greece, but not for the sake of 

 their seed, only as green fodder. The proper cultivation 

 of the Oat is first found at a subsequent period in 

 Germany, apparently borrowed from Eastern nations, from 

 whom Germany also obtained its Rye. According to the 

 usual opinion, the culture of Maize throughout the Old 

 World is wholly introduced from America ; nevertheless, 

 testimony exists which makes it at least probable, that so 

 early even as the time of Theophrastus, Maize was known 

 by the Indians, and that at all events eastern Europe had 

 obtained it from the East. An exactly similar uncertainty 

 as exists in regard to the so-called Turkish Corn,* is found 

 in the case of the Cactus Opuntia, or Indian Fig. This 

 plant, at present growing all over the south of Europe, 

 Africa, and a part of the East, is, according to most 

 authorities, a native of America run wild here ; while the 

 researches of others lead us to look upon it as more 

 probably indigenous in these regions. Such wanderings of 

 plants, produced by the operations of mankind, are fre- 

 quently rocks which we can by no means avoid, on which 



* This name even, universal in Germany and Italy, and for which 

 a similar (Arabian Corn) is substituted in Greece, points to an 

 Oriental origin. 



