ORIGIN OF AGRICULTURE. 



301 



tion ; and there are attendant circumstances, which point to the same 

 conclusion. 



In the mountain-region above described, and particularly in its more 

 elevated portion, I met with small plantations devoted to three articles 

 of aboriginal culture ; the Basella tuberosa, the Oxalis crenata, and 

 the Tropmolum tuberosum. These are plants, which besides, appear 

 to belong naturally to the region in question ; and they all have tu- 

 berous roots. A fourth tuber-bearing plant, was seen cultivated side 

 by side; one, which did not aboriginally reach Mexico, but which 

 has now become universally known ; the common potato. 



Again, Peru, is possibly the only part of America, that possessed 

 indigenous domestic animals. The lama and the guinea-pig,* like 

 the above-named cultivated plants, are actual natives of Peru. But 

 the third American domestic animal, the turkey, is well known to have 

 its proper home in the wooded portions of the United States ; and 

 although not found in its domesticated state among the surrounding 

 aboriginal tribes, it was probably reclaimed by a people less remote 

 than the Peruvians. 



America, contains two of the natural centres of civilization ; and 

 Asia, contains one, the table-land of Thibet ; all three, being in the 

 possession of the Mongolian race. If now, we search the continents 

 for a fourth table-land, which in height, extent, and geographical im- 

 portance, can be ranked with the preceding ; we shall find it, only in 

 Abyssinia. 



It is, however, tolerably certain : That agriculture, was not sponta- 

 neously developed in any part of Africa. And it should also be ob- 

 served, That the cultivated plants of the East Indies and the Pacific 

 islands, are not mountain productions. The same indeed, may be 

 said of the cassada (Jatropha manihot) ; a plant aboriginally culti- 

 vated in the hotter portions of America. 



* The fact may be here noted, as of some interest in Zoology : That these two ani- 

 mals, have become particoloured, and also subject to individual variation in colour ; like 

 other domestic animals. This change has equally taken place in the turkey ; accompa- 

 nied with one of the additional marks of servitude, the dewlap. 



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