378 ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS. 



Greece/ and no one has found it in Persia or in Syria. 

 Forskal and Delile indicated it in Egypt, but Ascherson 

 does not admit this;^ and Forskal gives it in Arabia.* 

 The species may have become naturalized in these regions, 

 as the result of frequent cultivation from the time of the 

 ancient Egyptians. However, its wild nature is so 

 doubtful elsewhere, that its Egypto- Arabian origin is 

 very probable. 



Italian Hillet — Panicum Itcdicum, Linnaeus ; Setaria 

 Italica, Beauvois. 



The cultivation of this species was very common in 

 the temperate parts of the old world in prehistoric 

 timea Its seeds served as food for man, though now 

 they are chiefly given to birds. 



In China it is one of the five plants which the 

 emperor sows each year in a public ceremony, according 

 to the command issued by Chin-nong 2700 B.C.* The 

 common name is siao mi (little seed), the more ancient 

 name being ku ; but the latter seems to be applied also to 

 a very diflerent species.^ Pickering says he recognized it 

 in two ancient Egyptian drawings, and that it is now 

 cultivated in Egypt® under the name doJchn; but that is 

 the name of Panicvm, miliacev/m. It is, therefore, very 

 doubtful that the ancient Egj'ptians cultivated it. It has 

 been found among the remains of the Swiss lake-dwell- 

 ings of the stone epoch, and therefore d fortiori among 

 the lake-dwellers of the subsequent epoch in Savoy .^ 



The ancient Greeks and Latins did not mention it, or 

 at least it has not been possible to certify it from what 

 they say of several panicums and millets. In our own 

 day the species is rarely cultivated in the south of 

 Europe, not at aU in Greece,** for instance, and I do not 



' Heldreioh, Nutii. Qriechenl., p. 3 ; Pflanz. Attisch. Elene., p. 516. 



' M. Ascherson informs me in a letter that in his A.ufza,hlung the 

 word cult, has been omitted by mistake after Panicuin miliacemn, 



' Forskal, Fl. Arab., p. civ. 



' Bretsohneider, Study and Value, etc., pp. 7, 8 



' Bretschneider, ibid, 



' According to Unger, Tflam. d. Alt. Mgypt., p. 34. 



' Heer, Pflaiisen d. Pfahlbaut, p. 5, fig. 7; p. 17, figs. 28, 29; Perriu, 

 Etudes Prihistoriques sur la Sa/voie, p. 22, 



• Heldreioh, Nutzpfl. Oriech. 



