The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1876-04-20
THE TRAVELS OF PLANTS.
From the Journal OF Chemistry.
MANY familiar. ralanta haze he


Many familiar plants have been great
travellers in their day Some that are
| now thorougy domesticated in our land
and Which we might suppose to be true
native Americans are merely natural
lied foreigners from beyond the sea
and, on the other hand, some that be-
long to the vegetable aborigines of this
western hemisphere have migrated to
the old world. and are now quite at home
IN the Cultivated circles of Europe
The birthplace Of some is not easily
traced, as their travels began in pre-his-
toric times and they are now citizens of
the world, bearing no mark of their pri-
NAL homo. The wanderings of others
have been confined to modern days, and
are recorded with more or less accuracy.
In ancient tines, plants were oftener
distributed by warriors than in any 9th
er way. Alexander brought rice from
Persia to the Mediterranean, the Arabs
carried it to Egypt, the Moors to Spain,
and the Spaniards to America. Lucul-
lus brought the cherry -tree-which takes
it's name from Caresus, the city of Pom
tus where he found ito Rome as a
trophy of his Mithridatic campaign !;
and 12O years later, or in A. D. 46, Pliny
tells us, it was carried to England
Caesar is said to have given barley to
both Germany and Britain. According
to Strabo, wheat came originally from
the banks of the Indus, but it reached
the Mediterranean before the dawn of
authentic history. Both barley and
wheat came to the new world with its
coneuerors and colonists, and the maize
which they found here soon went over
to Europe in exchange. It was known
in England in lie IS than fifty years after
the discovery Of America it was intro
duced to the Mediterranean countries,
by way of Spain, at the end of the six
teenth century, and the Venetians soon
carried it to the Levant. Later it tray
eled up the Danube to Hungary, and
gradually spread eastward to China.
While it was thus invading the regions
formerly devoted to rice, the latter was
establishing itself in this country.
The sugar cane, which with it's sweet
product was known to the Greeks and
Romans only as d curiosity, seems to
have been cultivated in India and China
from the earliest times. It's introduc-
ton into Europe was one Of the results
of the CrJlsades, and thence it was trans
planted to Madeira, and early in the SIX
teenth century from that island to the
West Indies. The original home of
''King Cotton was probably in Persia
or India, though it is also mentioned in
the early annals of Egypt, and had ex-
tended throughout Africa in very ancient
times. The tea plant has not proved
very good traveller, though its dry leaves
have been carried in such quantities
throughout the civilized world.
1t is a curious fact that the use of the
coffee berry was unknown in its native
country, Arabia, until a multi of Alden
introduced the beverage from Persia,
where he had acquired taste for it. It
has now become established in most of
the tropical lands colonized by Europe
ans, who did not themselves become &C.
quaiuted with it until late in the six
teenth century.
The potato was found in Peru and
Chill by the first explorers of those coun-
tries, who soon carried it to Spain. It
is said to have reached Burgundy In
1860, and Italy about the same time. 1t
appears to have been brought from Vir-
ginia to Ireland by Hawkins, slave
trader, in 1865; and to England in 1886
by Drake, who presented some tubers
to Gerard, who planted them in his gar
den in London and described the plant
in his Herball and it was also introduc-
ed by Raleigh at about the same date.
But it was slow to attract attention, and
it was not till nearly a century later that
it began to be much cultivated. In 1868
the Royal Society published rules for its
culture, and from that time it rapidly
gained favor. The Dutch carried it to
the Cape of Good Hope in 1900, and
thence it made its way to India.
The travels of the bread-fruit tree be-
came notorious in connection with the
mutiny of the Bounty. A recent Eng
lsh writer gives the following facts in
this connection: On Dampier's return
from the South Sea Islands he brought
accounts of this tree which astonished
the civilized world, and the botonists of
Captain Cooks expedition to the Society
Islands afterwards described it IS "the
most wonderful vegetable in the world" "
and represented the excellence of its yeI-
low, sweet fruit in such glowing terms
that the British public became excited,
many persons being bitten with the idea
of unadulterated bread and penny loaves
growing ready baked on tree. Peti-
tions on this subject were sent to George
Ill, and at length the Bounty was fit
ted up for the purpose of conveying the
tree from the Pacific to our colonies in
the West Indies. She arrived at Tahiti
in 1888, and shipped 1,500 young trees,
with which her commander, Bhgh, set
off, intending to round the Cape of Good
Hope, when the mutiny broke out, and
the trees were lost. But the proposed
migration was afterwards accomplished
by the same navigator. and the cape was
passed withe It exposing the plants to
temperature below 81 deg. Fahrenheit.
Some of the trees were left at New Hol-
land, others at ST. Helena, and the rest
were landed at Jamaica and st. Vincent,
and the vessel freighted from the botan
ical garden there with plants for Kew.
In modern times, useful plants have
been carried to al new countries and
colonies where the soil and climate suit
them. Australia, for example, was sin
gularly bare of native fruits, possessing