42 ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS. 



cultivation. In the Iberian peninsula it is mentioned as 

 "subspontaneous."^ It is the same in the north of Africa.^ 

 Evidently the natural, ancient, and undoubted habitation 

 is western temperate Asia and the south-east of Europe. 

 It does not appear that the plant has been found beyond 

 the Caspian Sea in the land formerly occupied by the 

 Indo-Europeans, but this region is still little known. 

 The species only exists in India as a cultivated plant, 

 and has no Sanskrit name.' 



Neither is there any known Hebrew name, while the 

 Greeks, Romans, Slavs, Germans, and Kelts had various 

 names, which a philologist could perhaps trace to one 

 or two roots, but which nevertheless indicate by their 

 numerous modifications an ancient date. Probably the 

 wild roots were gathered in the fields before the idea of 

 cultivating the species was suggested. Pliny, however, 

 says * that it was cultivated in Italy in his time, and it 

 is possible that the custom was of older date in Greece 

 and Asia Minor. 



The cultivation of madder is often mentioned in 

 French records of the Middle Ages.^ It was afterwards 

 neglected or abandoned, until Althen reintroduced it 

 into the neighbourhood of Avignon in the middle of the 

 eighteenth century. It flourished formerly in Alsace, 

 Germany, Holland, and especially in Greece, Asia Minor, 

 and Syria, whence the exportation was considerable ; but 

 the discovery of dyes extracted from inorganic substances 

 has suppressed this cultivation, to the great detriment of 

 the provinces which drew large profits from it. 



Jerusalem Artichoke — Helianthus tuberosus, Linnteus. 



It was in the year 1616 that European botanists first 

 mentioned this Composite, with a large root better 

 adapted for the food of animals than of man. Columna " 

 had seen it in the garden of Cardinal Farnese, and called 

 it Aster peruanus tuberosus. Other authors of the same 



• Willkomm and Lange, Prodromus Florce Hispanicm, ii. p. 307. 



« Ball, Spicilegium Florm Maroccarm, p. 483 ; Mimby, Catal Plant 

 Alger., edit. 2, p. 17. 



» Fiddington, Index. * Plinius, lib. 19, cap. 3. 



» De Gasparin, Traiti d' Agricultiwre, iv. p. 253. 



• Columna, Ecphi-asis, ii. p. 11. 



