Smyrna times., 1883-04-11
Origin and Antiquity of Cultivated
Plants.

De CaRdolle, most of the Vegetables and
fruits which are now cultivated for
food or use in the arts were known in
prehistoric times and had their origin
largely among the peoples bordering
the Mediterranean. The cabbage was
derived from the western coasts of
Europe, and was first gathered and |
then cultivated by pre-Aryan races.
The onion was brought from Western
Asia. The origin of fax is complicat-
ed. The inhabitants of the Swiss lake
dwellings of the Stone Age did not use
our present annual fax but a subper-
ennial sort indigenous to Southern
Europe, Linum angustfolium. This
was displaced by Linum usitatissimum,
native of countries south of the Cas-
plan, which was introduced into
Europe and India by Aryan races.
The knowledge of hemp seems to have
been brought into Europe by the
Scythians about 1900 B. c.; there is no
trace of it in the Swiss lake-dwellings.
The vine is indigenous in Western
Asia, whence its use was carried to
various countries by both Aryan and
Semitic races but it did not reach
China before 122 B. G.
The almond, although so character
istic of Mediterranean countries, seems
to be a native of Western Asia, and
perhaps Greece. AS late as the time of
Pliny the fruits were known to the
Romans as Nuces greece. The wild
stocks of our pears and apples seem to
have been indigenous to Southern
Europe and Western Asia before the
Aryan invasion their remains abound
in the Swiss lake-dwellings. The
ounce is native of North Persia, but
seems to have been introduced into
Eastern Europe in pre-Hellenic times
The primitive home of the olive was
apparently the eastern shores of the
Mediterranean. The fig has left it's
remains in quaternary rocks in France
along with the teeth of Elephas primi-
genius, but its prehistoric home must
be sought in the Southern Mediterra-
mean shores and lands, where it surviv-
ed after probably perishing in France.
The commoR bean (Fdba cuIgaris)
seem to have become extinct in a wild
state; it may have originated south Of
the Caspian, and was introduced into
Europe by the Aryans. The remains
of lentils have been found in lake
dwellings of the Bronze Age. The
chick-pea was carried from the south
of the Caucasus by the Aryans to India
and Europe. The carob is indigenou,
to the Eastern Mediterranean, whence
the Greeks introduced it into Italy an(
the Arabs into Western Europe.
De Candolle regards all the various
kinds of wheat as derivatives of tn,
snall-grained kind found in the mos
ancient lake-dwellings of Western
Switzerland. He inclines to the belle
that the wild stock of this originated il
Mesopetamia, where it may still exist
As to barley, the inhabitants of tn
Swiss lake-dwellings cultivated bot
the two-rowed and the six-rowe
kinds. The former is found sponta
neously in the erea between the Re
Sea and the Caspian; but nothing
known of the spontaneous occurrenc
of the latter or of the four-rowed kint
Either then both were derivatives i
prehistoric times of the two-rowe
variety, or they are the cultivated rel
resentatives of species which hav
since become extinct. AS to rye, prol
ability points to an origin in Soutl
eastern Europe. The lake-dwellel
even of the age of Bronze did n,
Nnow it, but Pliny mentions its cult
walton near Turin. De Candolle SUI
poses that the Aryan migrations Yves
ward met with it in Europe and ca
ried it onward. Oats seem also
have originated in Eastern Europ,
they are found not earlier than Il
Bronze Age in Switzerland. Fro
Pliny's mention that the German
used oatmeal, it is concluded that Il
Oat was not cultivated by the Roman