queror of Mexico, wrote from thence to the King of Spain, “ I beseech your Majesty to give orders that no 
vessel sail for this country without a certain quantity of plants and grain.” The foundation of the wheat- 
harvests of that country is said to have been three or four grains, which a slave of the conqueror accidentally 
in 1530, mixed with a quantity of rice. These he carefully preserved, and used so advantageously as to 
entitle him to public gratitude, but even his name is unknown ; while the Spanish lady, Maria d’Escobar, 
who first imported the same blessing into Peru, has her name, and her distribution of the produce of suc- 
cessive harvests as seed among the farmers, celebrated in history. A chief, named Duaterra, was the first 
person who actually reared a crop of wheat in New Zealand. On leaving Port Jackson the second time, to 
return home, he took with him a quantity of it, and much surprised his acquaintances by informing them 
that this was the very substance of which the Europeans made biscuit, such as they had seen and eaten on 
board their ships. He gave a portion of it to several persons, all of whom put it into the ground, and it 
grew well ; but, before it was well ripe, many of them were impatient for the produce ; and, as they expected 
to find the grain at the roots of the stems, similar to their potatoes, they examined them, and, finding no 
wheat under the ground, all, except one, pulled it up, and burned it. The chiefs ridiculed Duaterra about 
the wheat ; and all he urged would not convince them that wheat would make bread. His own crops, and 
that of his uncle, who had allowed the grain to remain, came, in time, to perfection, and were reaped and 
threshed ; and, though the natives were much astonished to find that the grain was produced at the top and 
not at the bottom of the stem, yet still they could not be persuaded that bread could be made of it. A 
friend afterwards sent Duaterra a steel mill to grind his wheat, which he received with no little joy. He 
soon set to work before his countrymen, ground some wheat, and they danced and shouted with delight 
when they saw the meal. He afterwards made a cake, and baked it in a frying-pan, and gave it to the peo- 
ple to eat, which fully satisfied them of the truth of his assertions. The chiefs now begged more seed, 
which they sowed ; and such of it as was attended to grew up as strong a crop as could be desired. 
Thus, wheat as it is the plant most necessary to mankind, so it is the most general ; and it ought not 
to be over-looked, that its presence in any region of the earth attests that man is there in an advanced state 
of civilization. In the sepulchres of the Egyptian kings, which were opened by the scientific men who ac- 
companied the French army into Egypt, the common wheat was found in vessels so perfectly closed that 
the grains retained their form and colour ; and thus, buried, as it had been, for several thousand years, it 
shows as clearly the civilization of that country as its temples now in ruins ; because the corn-plants, such 
as they appear under cultivation, do not grow wild in any part of the earth. 
Mr. Martin Farquher Tupper, the talented author of “ Proverbial Philosophy ” succeeded in raising 
grain from some ancient Egyptian seed presented to him by Mr. Pettigrew the distinguished Surgeon and 
Antiquary. “In 1838,” says this gentleman, “Mr. Pettigrew, the well-known lecturer on Egyptian 
antiquities, gave me out of two small glasses in his own private museum, six grains of wheat, and as many of 
barley, furnishing me at the same time, with the following information as regards their history: — Sir Gardiner 
Wilkinson, during his recent travels in the Thebaid, opened an ancient tomb, (which had probably remained 
unvisited by man, during the greater part of 3,000 years,) and from some alabaster sepulchral vases therein, 
took with his own hands, a quantity of wheat and barley that had been there preserved. Portions of this 
grain. Sir G. Wilkinson had given to several of his antiquarian friends, and among them to Mr. Pettigrew, who 
made me a sharer in the venerable harvest. Until the spring of 1840, the twelve corns of which I so became 
possessed, remained among certain contemporary bronzes and images, in their separate paper box, but about 
that time, finding myself in the country, and much occupied in horticultural pursuits, I bethought myself of 
those ancient seeds, and resolved to try my fortune in rearing them. Now, the question being strictly a 
question of identity, and more or less involving personal character, I should, perhaps, be pardoned, if I en- 
deavour to satisfy the unbelieving mind, by descending to a few humble details of my care and caution. I 
ordered four garden pots of well-sifted loam, and not content with my gardener’s care in sifting, I emptied 
each pot into an open paper, and put the earth back again, morsel by morsel, with my own fingers. It is 
next to impossible that any other seed should have been there. I, on the 7th of March, planted my grains, 
three in each pot, at the angles of an equilateral triangle, so as to be sure of the spots where the sprouts 
would probably come up, by way of additional security against any chance seed unseen, lurking in the soil. 
Of the twelve, one only germinated, the plant in question, the blade first becoming visible on the 22nd of 
April, the remaining eleven after long patience I picked out again : and found in every instance that they 
were rotting in the earth, being eaten away by a number of white worms. It is a curious speculation, bye 
the bye, whether this might not have been a re-wakening of dormant animal life, for it is by no means im- 
probable that the little maggots, on which we might build such high arguments, were the produce of ova 
deposited on the grains, at a period involving the very youth of time, by some patriarchal flies of ancient 
Egypt. My interesting plant of wheat, remained in the atmosphere of my usual sitting room, until change 
of place and air seemed necessary for its health, when I had it carefully transplanted to the open flower-bed, 
where it has prospered ever since. The first ear began to be developed on the 5th of July ; and although 
it may disappoint expectation, to find that its appearance is in most respects, similar to that of a rather 
