126 OEIGIN OP CULTIVATED PLANTS, 



western Aryans, and before their arrival in Europe. 

 Another idea occurred to me which led me into further 

 researches, but they were unproductive. I thought that, 

 since this flax was cultivated by the lake-dwellers of 

 Switzerland and Italy before the arrival of the Aryan 

 peoples, it was probably also grown by the Iberians, who 

 then occupied Spain and Gaul ; and perhaps some special 

 name for it has remained among the Basques, the sup- 

 posed descendants of the Iberians. Now, according to 

 several dictionaries of their language,^ liho, lino, or li, 

 according to the dialects, signifies flax, which agrees with 

 the name diflfused throughout Southern Europe. The 

 Basques seem, therefore, to have received flax from 

 peoples of Aryan origin, or perhaps they have lost the 

 ancient name and substituted that of the Kelts and 

 Romans. The name flachs or flax of the Teutonic lan- 

 guages comes from the Old German flahs. There are also 

 special names in the north-west of Europe — peltawa, 

 aivdna, in Finnish ; ^ hor, hdrr, hor, in Danish ;.^ hor 

 and tone in ancient Gothic* Haar exists in the German 

 of Salzburg.^ This word may be in the ordinary sense 

 of the German for thread or hair, as the name li may 

 be connected with the same root as ligare, to bind, and as 

 hor, in the plural horvar, is connected by philologists ^ 

 with harva, the German root for Flachs ; but it is, never- 

 theless, a fact that in Scandinavian countries and in 

 Finland terms have been used which differ from those 

 employed throughout the south of Europe. This variety 

 shows the antiquity of the cultivation, and agrees with 

 the fact that the lake-dwellers of Switzerland and Italy 

 cultivated a species of flax before the first invasion of the 

 Aryans. It is possible, I might even say probable, that 



• Van Eys, Diet. Basque-Frangais, 1876 ; G?ize, EUments de Oram- 

 maire Basque suivis d'un vocahvlaire, Bayonne, 1873; Salaberry, MoU 

 Basques Nava/rrais, Bayonne, 1856 j rEoluse, Vocdb. Franf.-Basque, 1826. 



• Nemnich, Poly. Led. d. Naturgesch., ii. p. 420 j Eafn, Banmark 

 Flora, ii. p. 390. 



• Nemnioh, ibid. * Ibid. • Ibid. 



' Pick, Vergl. Worterbuch. Ind. Qerm., 2nd edit., i. p. 722. He also 

 derives the name Lma from the Latin linuin ; but this name is of earlier 

 date, being common to several European Aryan languages. 



