346 Man's Work on the Farm 



But if we cannot say when the first corn was brought 

 to Europe, still less can we say when, and by whom, 

 the various kinds were first cultivated. It was, how- 



* 



ever, at such a very remote period, that they are none 

 of them found in the wild state. 



The- earliest changes in the vegetation of Europe, of 

 which we have any historical notice, are those made in 

 the south of Italy by the Greek colonists (from B.C. 734), 

 who brought with them the garden-rose and the lily. 

 On their arrival, they found the country much over- 

 grown with wood, among which beech-trees were 

 especially prominent, but there were none of the plants 

 and shrubs then growing there which we are accus- 

 tomed to think of as particularly belonging to Italy. 



We can hardly imagine Italy without the myrtle, 

 laurel and olive, to say nothing of the orange and 

 palm. But oranges were quite unknown both to 

 Greeks and Romans, and Italy was without myrtles 

 and laurels until they were introduced by the colonists 

 and planted round the temples of Aphrodite and 

 Phoebus, to whom these shrubs were sacred. The 

 olive was in like manner sacred to Pallas, and was 

 therefore pretty sure to accompany the wanderers, for 

 it is one of the trees which has been cultivated from time 

 immemorial, especially in Syria, from which the culti- 

 vated olive seems to have come originally. Once 

 introduced, it would soon spread, for birds are very 

 fond of the berries, and scatter the seeds far and wide. 

 A wild variety, from the Punjab and Beloochistan, has 

 been conveyed by their means to Portugal, Madeira, 

 Morocco and the Canary Islands. 



But near Messa, in Morocco, there is a grove of 

 olives planted in such a regular, but whimsical fashion, 



