28 TlMEHRI. 
If such is the case, then the banana and sugar-cane are 
only infants, and the theory of the dependence of culti- 
vated plants will admit of considerable modification. 
The krattee belongs only to this continent and has 
probably been used for making hammock cords for ages. 
Like the pine-apple it is never found truly wild, but 
wherever there is, or has been, an Indian settlement this 
plant is certain to be found. Not bearing an edible fruit, 
its development has progressed in an entirely different 
direction. For cordage, length of fibre is of the utmost 
importance, especially to savage man, who has no con- 
veniences for twisting, and here we have perhaps the 
longest fibre known, the leaves being ten or twelve feet 
in length.* 
The section of Botany which considers the origin and 
distribution of cultivated plants and weeds is now 
receiving very great attention, and deserves far more 
consideration than is generally supposed. To Geology 
it has already given most valuable indications of the 
distribution of sea and land in past ages, and it is 
expected to throw as much light on the great science of 
Anthropology. Till within the last thirty years the 
natural history of man was hardly thought of, much less 
studied, but since that time it has been extending its 
field so as to embrace a great portion of every other 
science. It may be confidently predicted that a know- 
ledge of the distribution of weeds and cultivated plants 
will throw great light on the history of man's wanderings, 
* The Indians of the Demerara river have discovered that these 
fibres make good thread for sewing, and it is rather interesting to 
watch a woman drawing out a fibre from the half dry leaf to thread her 
needle. 
