CULTIVATED PLANTS 161 



development of the species to its present high state 

 of perfection? Each of these forms was a step for- 

 ward, and each had to be preserved, kept from de- 

 generating, and made the subject of still further 

 improvement. Who could tell the story of all the 

 labor and pains it has taken to produce the cabbage- 

 head as we now have it? 



"And the wild pear-tree — are you acquainted with 

 it? It is a frightful bramble-bush, all bristling with 

 sharp thorns ; and the pears themselves— a most re- 

 pellent fruit, sure to choke you and set your teeth 

 on edge — are very small, sour, hard, and full of 

 grit that reminds one of gravel-stones. Surely he 

 must have had an extraordinary inspiration who first 

 pinned his faith on this crabbed specimen of under- 

 brush and foresaw in the remote future the butter- 

 pear on which we regale ourselves to-day. 



"In the same way, by the painstaking culture of 

 the primitive vine, whose grapes were no larger than 

 our elderberries, man has, in the sweat of his brow, 

 developed the luscious fruit of the modern vineyard. 

 From some poor species of grass now forgotten he 

 has also produced the wheat that to-day supplies us 

 with bread. A few wretched herbs and shrubs, far 

 from promising in appearance, he has cultivated and 

 improved until they became the vegetables and fruit 

 trees so prized by us at present. This old earth of 

 ours, in order to make us work and thus fulfil the 

 law of our existence, has behaved to us like a harsh 

 stepmother. To the birds of the air she gives food 

 in abundance, but to us she offers of her own free 



