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NAT ORL 
|-Warch 8, 1883 
ment under cultivation should be so arbitrarily distri- 
buted. The number of species domesticated in a given 
area would, other things being equal, seem to be related 
to the intelligence of the races working on them. North 
America has only given us the vegetable marrow and the 
Jerusalem artichoke ; and neither deserve more than a 
succes d’estime. But our best domesticated plants have 
developed their merits Aarz passu with the races that 
educated them. If we stumbled zow against the primitive 
stocks they might seem as little susceptible of develop- 
ment as the plants of the United States, whose capabilities 
we rank so low. But had the Old World races been but 
early enough on the New World soil to work out their 
progress to civilisation, possibly the balance in the pro- 
portion of domesticated plants would have been redressed. 
If the gardens of the United States are filled with Old 
World vegetables, the houses are inhabited by an Old 
World stock. The two things seem to me to go together; 
the indigenous races could neither develop their latent 
vegetables nor hold their own against an Old World 
human invasion. 
The circumstances of domestication, however, impose 
certain conditions which the flora drawn upon must fulfil 
The early stages of civilisation were probably unsuited to 
any fixity of abode. Tylor, it is true, remarks that “even 
very rude people mostly plant a little.’ But they will 
plant only what will give a quick return, and the qualities 
of foresight as well as a permanent social structure must 
be developed before men would have the disposition to 
plant fruit trees, which perhaps only their descendants 
would gather from. The first domesticated plants 
must have been those that were in themselves suc- 
culent, or would in the course of a single season yieid 
some desired product. We find then that out of the 
44 species, the cultivation of which in the Old World 
goes back to the dawn of civilisation, half are annuals ; 
and these are just what the great temperate flora of 
the northern hemisphere would supply. On the other 
hand, Patagonia and South Africa have not yielded a 
single domesticated plant. Australia only contributes 
the overrated Eucalyptus globulus, and New Zealand a 
wretched spinach (Ze¢ragonia). But then, as De Can- 
dolle remarks, their floras are destitute of the types of 
Graminee, Leguminose, and Crucifere, which were avail- 
able in the northern hemisphere, and predominate in the 
list of the 44 most anciently cultivated plants. As between 
the north and the south I think this argument is valid. 
But as between the east and the west in the north hemi- 
sphere, since the main features of the flora are radically 
the same, any similar explanation does not hold. 
With regard to such of these primitive cultures as 
belong to the temperate regions of the Old World, it will 
be interesting to give De Candolle’s conclusions. The 
turnip and rapeseed (not however sustainable as distinct 
species) originated in Northern Europe. The cabbage 
was derived from the western coasts of Europe, where its 
wild stock may still be found ; it was first gathered and 
then cultivated by pre-Aryan races. Purslane is wild 
from the Wesiern Himalayas to Greece. The onion was 
brought from Western Asia. As to textiles, the origin of 
flax is somewhat complicated. The inhabitants of the 
Swiss lake-dwellings of the Stone Age did not use our 
present annual flax but a subperennial sort indigenous to 
Southern Europe (Zizum angustifolium). This was dis- 
placed by Linum wusitatissimum, a native of countries 
south of the Caspian, which was introduced into Europe 
and India by Aryan races. The knowledge of hemp 
seems to have been brought into Europe by the Scythians 
about 1500 B.C. ; there is no trace of it in the Swiss lake- 
dwellings. The vine is indigenous in Western Asia, 
whence its use was carried to various countries by both 
Aryan and Semitic races ; but it did not reach China 
before 122 B.C. 
The almond, although so characteristic of Mediter- 
ranean countries, seems to be a native of Western Asia, 
and perhaps Greece. As late as the time of Pliny the 
fruits were known to the Romans as Wuces grece. The 
wild stocks of our pears and apples seem to have been 
indigenous to Southern Europe and Western Asia before 
the Aryan invasion ; their remains abound in the Swiss 
lake-dwellings. The quince is a native of North Persia, 
but seems to have been introduced into Eastern Europe 
in pre-Hellenic times. Remains of a form of the pome- 
granate have been found in strata of the Pleiocene age in 
Southern France by Saporta; but it died out and was 
reintroduced from countries adjoining Persia in prehis- 
toric times into the Mediterranean region of which it is 
now so characteristic a feature. The primitive home of 
the olive was apparently the eastern shores of the Medi- 
terranean, where the Greeks discovered its useful qualities 
the Romans learning them later. The fig has left its 
remains in quaternary rocks in France along with the 
teeth of Elephas primigenius, but its prehistoric home 
must be sought in the Southern Mediterranean shores 
and lands, where it survived after probably perishing in 
France. The common bean (/aéda vulgaris) seems to 
have become extinct in a wild state; it may have 
originated south of the Caspian, and was introduced into 
Europe by the Aryans. The remains of lentils have been 
found in lake-dwellings of the Bronze Age, and it was 
probably indigenous in Western Asia, Greece, and Italy 
before its cultivation in these countries ; subsequently it 
was introduced into Egypt. The chick-pea was carried 
from the south of the Caucasus by the Aryans to India 
and Europe. The carob is indigenous to the Eastern 
Mediterranean, whence the Greeks introduced it into 
Italy and the Arabs into Western Europe. De Candolle 
regards all the various kinds of wheat as derivatives of 
the small-grained kind found in the most ancient lake- 
dwellings of Western Switzerland. He inclines to the 
belief that the wild stock of this originated in Mesopo- 
tamia, where it may still exist. The origin of spelt is 
very doubtful, and it may possibly be an ancient culti- 
vated derivative from the wheat stock. As to barley, the 
inhabitants of the Swiss lake-dwellings cultivated both 
the two-rowed and the six-rowed kinds. The former is 
found spontaneously in the area between the Red Sea 
and the Caspian; but nothing is known of the spontaneous 
occurrence of the latter or of the four-rowed kind. Either 
then both were derivatives in prehistoric times of the 
two-rowed variety, or they are the cultivated representa- 
tives of species which have since become extinct. As to 
rye, probability points to an origin in South-Eastern 
Europe. The lake-dwellers even of the age of Bronze 
did not know it, but Pliny mentions its cultivation near 
Turin. De Candolle supposes that the Aryan migrations 
