74 The Ottawa Naturalist. [July 



ture, or the cultivation of cereals as it was undoubtedly restricted 

 to in our early civilization, provides food in sufficient quantities 

 and adapted to the use of man, that it should be considered the 

 parent of horticulture ; while those on the other side, take the 

 ground that historically,at least,agriculture appears in the natural 

 course of events to have been evolved from the art of gardening, 

 and claim that the latter, therefore, should enjoy the distinction 

 of parentage. 



EVOLUTION OF HORTICULTURE, 



It would seem reasonable to suppose, however, that at first 

 there was little dfferentiation. That those plants, cereal or fruit- 

 bearing, which most readily yielded food and supplied the wants 

 of man were used at first, and cultivated later- — contemporane- 

 ously. We should remember, as DeCandolle points out, that 

 " between the custom of gathering wild fruits, grain and roots, 

 and that of the regular cultivation of the plants which produce 

 them, there are several steps." The history of the cultivation of 

 those plants which have ministered to the wants of man as food 

 producing agents is most interesting. This history is given by 

 Alphonse de Candolle in his " Origin of Cultivated Plants." To 

 those interested in the evolution of agriculture, I would recom- 

 mend this work as a reference book and one filled with a vast array 

 of historical facts. If we cannot claim for horticulture, priority 

 over agricultune with satisfactory assurance, we can at least 

 claim that it is what we may term the fine art of common life, 

 because it supplies luxuries — and luxuries within the reach of 

 all. In this way it is eminently republican. 



The causes which have in the past promoted on the one hand, 

 or retarded on the other, the cultivation of a particular plant have 

 been various. If easily grown and yielding a product which was,or 

 soon became a necessity, its propagation and popularity was 

 assured. "In the same way* the various causes which favour or 



*De Condolle. 



