130 ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS. 



2. The annual flax {L. usitatissimum), cultivated for 

 at least four thousand or five thousand years in Mesopo- 

 tamia, Assyria, and Egypt, was and still is wild in the 

 districts included between tlie Persian Gulf, the Caspian 

 Sea, and the Black Sea. 



3. This annual flax appears to have been introduced 

 into the north of Europe by the Finns (of Turanian race), 

 afterwards into the rest of Europe by the western Aryans, 

 and perhaps here and there by the Phoenicians; lastly 

 into Hindustan by the eastern Aryans, after their sepa- 

 ration from the European Aryans. 



4. These two principal forms or conditions of flax 

 exist in cultivation, and have probably been wild in their 

 modern areas for the last five thousand years at least. 

 It is not possible to guess at their previous condition. 

 Their transitions and varieties are so numerous that they 

 maybe considered as one species comprising two or three 

 hereditary varieties, which are each again divided into 

 subvarieties. 



Jute — Corchorus capsularis and Cwchorus olitorius, 

 Linnseus. 



The fibres of the jute, imported in great quantities in 

 the last few years, especially into England, are taken 

 from the stem of these two species of Corchorus, annuals 

 of the family of the Tiliacese. The leaves are also used 

 as a vegetable. 



C. capsularis has a nearly spherical fruit, flattened 

 at the top, and surrounded by longitudinal ridges. 

 There is a good coloured illustration of it in the work of 

 the younger Jacquin, EclogcB, pi. 119. G. olitorius, on 

 the contrary, has a long fruit, like the pod of a Crucifer. 

 It is figured in the Botanical Magazine, fig. 2810, and in 

 Lamarck, fig. 478. 



The species of the genus are distributed nearly equally 

 in the warm regions of Asia, Africa, and America ; con- 

 sequently the origin of each cannot be guessed. It must 

 be sought in floras and herbaria, with the help of his- 

 toiical and other data. 



Corchorus capsularis is commonly cultivated in 

 the Sunda Islands, in Ceylon, in the peninsula of Hin- 



