THE VEGETABLE WORLD. 301 



great families of Nations may be distinguished through this 

 circumstance, and from the weeds which have firmly 

 attached themselves to their train, it may with some 

 certainty be determined, whether Sclaves or Germans, 

 Europeans or Orientals, Negroes or Indians, &c., formerly 

 built their huts on any spot. Thus, even to the present 

 day, are marked the footsteps of the bands of nations 

 which in the middle ages emerged from Asia into Central 

 Europe, by the advance of the Asiatic Steppe-plants, such 

 as the Kochia* and the Tartar Sea-kale,f the former into 

 Bohemia and Carniola, the latter into Hungary and 

 Moravia. The North American savage significantly calls 

 our Plaintain, or Road-weed,! " the Footstep of the 

 Whites;" and a common species of Vetch still marks 

 the former abode of the Norwegian colonists in Greenland. 

 A more intimate knowledge of these peculiar Floras might 

 probably afford us many more interesting explanations as 

 to the wanderings of the primary Races of mankind, and 

 their alliances, if so many botanical travellers were not 

 so-called Systematists that is, dull and ignorant collectors 

 of hay. I may mention some more of such examples, 

 vegetables especially accompanying Europeans, the different 

 kinds of Nettle and Goose-foot. But one of the most 

 striking instances of the kind is the gradual extension of 

 the Thorn-apple over the whole of Europe, which has 

 followed the bands of Gypsies out of Asia; this race 

 make frequent use of this poisonous plant in their un- 

 lawful proceedings, and hence much cultivated by them, it 

 also occurs, uncalled for, near the places where they have 

 made their habitations. Auguste St. Hilaire says, in the 

 introduction to his Flora of Brazil, " In Brazil, as in Europe, 



* Kochia scoparia. f Crambe tatarica. 



I Plantago major. Vicia cracca. 



