36 AGRICULTURAL AND BOTANICAL EXPLORATIONS IN PALESTINE. 



long, just beneath the surface of the ground. These roots form large 

 nodules, probably because of the sting of an insect, though this matter, 

 so far as I know, has not been studied. These nodules are tolerably 

 close together and like knots in cords, thus making the shrub very 

 valuable in the fixation of dunes. A related species, Calligonum 

 caput-medusae, has been used with remarkable results in the fixation 

 of dunes from the Caspian Sea to Turkestan. 



It is not my intention in this bulletin to give a complete list of the 

 plants which it would be advantageous to import from Palestine. I 

 wish simply to give a few examples to illustrate the interest that 

 Palestine and the surrounding countries, Arabia, Syria, Mesopotamia, 

 and Anatolia, should awaken in the United States. These countries 

 have been centers of cultivation for many centuries and contain prod- 

 ucts of great importance to the progress of agriculture, both in their 

 wild types and in the cultivated forms in which they have been grown 

 from time immemorial. 



WILD PROTOTYPES OF WHEAT AND OTHER CEREALS IN 



PALESTINE. 



HISTORICAL INTEREST OF WILD WHEAT. 



Thirty years ago De Candolle a said that the question of the origin 

 of cultivated plants was of importance not only to agriculturists and 

 botanists but to historians, philosophers, and all who are interested 

 in the birth and development of civilization. The fathers of history, 

 Herodotus, Homer, Diodorus of Sicily, and others who lived in the 

 age when mythical deities ruled the minds of the people, always attrib- 

 uted to some god the task of having taught men the uses of plants. 

 At one time and in one nation it was Isis and Osiris ; at another, Ceres 

 or Demeter of Triptolemus ; but never a thought was given to man's 

 own ingenuit} 7 or to his own need as the reason for cultivation. This 

 shows that the cultivation of plants goes back to very ancient times, 

 for when these legends were formulated all recollection of the real 

 origin of cultivation had long since vanished. 



As the races developed, the love of legend was replaced by the 

 desire for truth, and in the beginning of the nineteenth century the 

 study of natural science had advanced to such a stage that people 

 demanded facts based upon scientific observation. So we find Link, 

 in 1816, & and Dureau de la Malle, c in 1826, writing on " The Ancient 



a De Candolle, A. Origin of Cultivated Plants. 



6 Link, H. F. Ueber die aeltere Geschichte der Getreidearten (Vorgelesen den 

 20 Marz, 1817), in Abhandlungen der Akadamie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin 

 aus den Jahren 1816-1817, Berlin, 1819, and November 9, 1826, Berlin, 1829; 

 and in " Die Urwelt und das Alterthnm," erlautert durch die Naturkund, 2d ed., 

 pt. 1, Berlin, 1834. 



c De la Malle, Dureau. Annales des Sciences Naturelles, ser. 1, vol. 9, Paris, 

 1826, pp. 61-82. 



180 .... 



