NAPORL: 
429 
THURSDAY, MARCH 8, 1883 : 
THE ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS 
Origine des Plantes cultivées. Par Alph. de Candolle 
(Paris: Germer, Bailliére et Cie., 1883.) 
Les Plantes potagéres, Description et Culture des principaux 
Légumes des Climats tempérés. Par Vilmorin-Andrieux 
et Cie. (Paris: Vilmorin-Andrieux et Cie., 1883.) 
LPHONSE DE CANDOLLE occupies a position 
in the botanical world which in its way is unique. 
He is ina manner the doyew amongst the heads of the 
botanical establishments of different countries which have 
for their especial object the study of the earth’s vegeta- 
tion in its taxonomic aspect. There is a special appro- 
priateness in his being so; the Geneva botanical school, 
though in filiation related to the French, has always 
seemed to belong more to Europe than to Switzerland. 
The effect of this circumstance has doubtless operated 
indirectly on a mind naturally inclined to wide and general 
views. Accordingly as the invaluable ‘ Prodromus ”— the 
only modern work which has attempted to describe all 
known species of flowering plants—drew near the point 
at which it was decided to conclude it after occupying 
two generations of botanists, we find De Candolle himself 
more and more engaged with works dealing with general 
questions—works which both temperament and point of 
view peculiarly fitted him to undertake. Such were his 
“ Histoire des Sciences et des Savants depuis deux 
Siécles,” published in 1873, and his “ Phytographie; ou, 
L’Art de décrire les Végétaux,’’ published more recently 
(1880). 
Long ago however, in 1855, he had published his classical 
“ Géographie botanique raisonnée,’’ and in this he had 
stated the theory, sufficiently novel then, though now a 
commonplace, that the present distribution of the earth’s 
flora cannot be accounted for by any possibility as the 
result of the existing configuration of its surface, but is 
the gradual result of long antecedent geological changes. 
De Candolle’s conclusions are now seen to form a par- 
ticular case in the general theory of evolution. But we 
must not forget that they were the independent result of 
a long and laborious induction. 
The study of geographical distribution requires the 
elimination from the facts of all disturbing elements. It 
is necessary to ascertain the precise nature of the flora 
of any given district undisturbed by artificial modifica- 
tions. The slow action of natural forces is one thing: 
the changes brought about by man are another. De 
Candolle was therefore obliged to devote no small atten- 
tion to the question of introduced and cultivated plants, | 
They must clearly be eliminated from the enumeration of 
feral productions. But the question then arises, What is 
to be done with them, and to the flora of what country | 
are they to be relegated? The result is not merely one 
of disembarrassment to the botanist; it has its interest no > 
less for anthropology in the widest sense. Different races 
have taken advantage of plants susceptible of cultivation 
cultures with them. If the botanist then does his work 
properly in tracking them back to their original cradle, he 
VoL. Xxvil.—No. 697 
is tracking bac< the migratory race as well, and doing 
the work of the anthropologist. Plants often take their 
old names with them, and these may and frequently have 
persisted when the race that brought them has passed 
away, been dispersed, or changed its language. All the 
various names, for example, given to hemp by the 
descendants of the Aryan race go back to the same root. 
These considerations will be sufficient:to establish the 
utility of the study which De Candolle has had in hand 
for some thirty years, and with regard to which he has 
now given us, in a singularly succinct form, probably as 
much as we are ever likely to know. Hitherto we have 
been badly off for a handy synopsis of the subject. It is 
true we have the chapter in De Candolle’s work already 
referred to, and Mr. Darwin brought together a con- 
siderable body of information in his “ Variation of Animals 
and Plants under Domestication.” The former book has,. 
however, long been out of print, and Mr. Darwin’s purpose 
only led him to deal with those species which have largely 
varied under cultivation. For my own part I have gene- 
rally used for reference the two admirable articles in the 
ninth volume of the /owrnal of the Horticultural Society— 
a body which unhappily, while taking the title of Royal 
seems to have lost its taste for such studies. These 
articles—in form a review of a little work by Targioni- 
Tozzetti, of which I have never seen but a single copy— 
are really an extremely useful examination of the whole 
subject ; and as it is an open secret that they are from 
the pen of Mr. Bentham, the critical opinions they contain 
as to the origin of all our more important cultivated. 
plants may be relied upon with considerable confidence. 
“ An English vegetable garden,’ says Mr. Tylor, “is a 
curious study for the botanist, who assigns to each plant 
its proper home; and to the philologist, who traces 
its name.’? But De Candolle, not confining himself to 
our temperate pot-herbs, has included in his studies 
the cultivated plants of all countries. Accurate know- 
| ledge in this matter is a thing of comparatively recent 
growth. Linnzeus bestowed no pains upon it. Humboldt 
in 1807 dismissed it as an impenetrable secret. De 
Candolle has now discussed no less than 247 species. It 
is curious—perhaps significant—to note that 199 of these 
trace back to the Old World ; only 45 are American, and 
3 doubtful. Neither the tropical nor the southern regions 
of either hemisphere have any of these species in common. 
The northern have five which are so, but it goes with the 
rest of the facts that the domestication of these belongs 
to the Old World, and to this De Candolle has accord- 
ingly credited them. Some things no doubt have escaped 
him, although the list is remarkably complete. Perhaps 
the most curious omission is rhubarb, the use of which 
for the table seems pretty much confined to England and 
Holland. 
It is rather to be regretted that De Candolle has aban- 
doned the attempt to indicate the points on the earth’s 
surface from which the maximum number of cultivated 
plants appear to have sprung. He contents himself with 
saying that the original distribution of the stocks of culti- 
vated plants is most irregular. “It had no relation with 
in the places where nature had originally planted them ; | the needs of man supplied nor with the area of origin.” 
and as these races have migrated they have taken their | I have a decided suspicion that the facts might be made 
to yield a different result. 
There does not seem any 
a priori reason why plants susceptible of useful develop- 
U 
