M. Alphonse de
Candolle tells us that we owe 33 useful plants to Mexico, Peru, and
Chili. According to the same high authority, of 157 valuable cultivated
plants 85 can be traced back to their wild state; as to 40, there is
doubt as to their origin; while 32 are utterly unknown in their
aboriginal condition. ("Geograph. Botan. Raisonnee," 1855, pp. 810-991.)
Certain roses--the imperial lily, the tuberose and the lilac--are said
to have been cultivated from such a vast antiquity that they are not
known in their wild state. (Darwin, "Animals and Plants," vol. i., p.
370.) And these facts are the more remarkable because, as De Candolle
has shown, all the plants historically known to have been first
cultivated in Europe still exist there in the wild state. (Ibid.) The
inference is strong that the great cereals--wheat, oats, barley, rye,
and maize--must have been first domesticated in a vast antiquity, or in
some continent which has since disappeared, carrying the original wild
plants with it.
CEREALS OF THE AGE OF STONE IN EUROPE
Darwin quotes approvingly the opinion of Mr. Bentham ("Hist. Notes Cult.
Plants"), "as the result of all the most reliable evidence that none of
the Ceralia--wheat, rye, barley, and oats--exist or have existed truly
wild in their present state.
Pages:
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108