New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-03-25
SCIENCE FOR THE PEOPLE.
ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF CULTI-
WAITED PLANTS.

According to that eminent authority De Can
dole. most of the Vegetables and fruits which
are now cultivated for food 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, band was first
gathered and then cultivated by pre-Aryan
faces. The onion was brought from Western
Asia. The origin of fax is complicated. The
Inhabitants of the Swiss lake-dwellDgs OF the
Stone Age did not use our present annual max
but suOperennial sort indigenous 10 southern
Europe, LiRun an6ltStifOiaiim. This was dis
placed by Linum USitatiSSimum native OF
countries south of the Caspian. which was III
Produced into Europe and India by Aryan races.
The knowledge of hemp seems TO have oeeh
brought into Europe by the Scythians abnut
1900 b. c.; there is no trace of it III the Swiss
lake-dwellings. The vine is indigenous III
Western Asia, whence its use was carried TO
various countries by both Aryan and Semitic
BE.
The almond, although so CHARACTERISTIC of
Mediterranean countries seems TO be NATIVE
of Western Asia, and perhaps Greece: AS late
as the time of Pliny the fruits were known TO
the Romans as NuceS grGcG. The wild stocks
OF our pears and apples seem To have been ind
genous to Southern Europe and Western Asia
before the Aryan invasion; their remains
abound in the Swiss lake-dwellings. The
ounce is a native of North Persia, but seems to
have been introduced into Eastern Europe in
pre-HelenIc times. The primitive home OF the
olive was apparently the eastern shores OF the
Mediterranean. The fg has left its remains in
Quaternary rocks 10 France along with the teeth
of Elephas prinigeniuS, but its prehistoric home
must be sought In the Southern Mediterranean
shores and lands, where it survived after prob
ably perishing in France. The common bean
(FdbG tHtgariSl seems TO have become extinct
in O wild state; it may have originated south
of the Caspian and was introduced into Europe
by the AIyans. The remains of ientils have
been found in lake-dweings of the Bronze
A0n hn oil " a
south of the Caucasus by the Alyans to India
and Europe. The carOb is indigenous to the
Easter IN Mediterranean, whence the Greeks in
froduced it into Italy and the Arabs into West
De Candole regards all the va ious kinds of
wheat as derivatives of the mal-gralned KIND
found III the most ancient lake-dwelllngS OF
Western Switzerland. He inclines 20 the belief
that the wild stock of this originated III MesO-
pOtamia, where it may still exist. As t. barley,
the nhahltants of the SWISS lake-dwellngs Gull
tivated both the twO-rOwed and the slX-rOWed
kinds. The former is found spontaneously in
the area between the Red Sea and the Caspian;
but nothing lis known of the spontaneous Oc-
currence of the latter or of the fOur-rOwed
kind. Either then both were derivatives IN pre-
historic times of the twO-rOwed variety, or they
are the cultivated representatives OF species
which have since become extinct. AS to rye,
probability points to an origin III Southeastern
Europe. Tie lake-dwellers even of the age of
Bronze did not know it, but Pliny mentions lts
that the Aryan mIgratiOns westward met with
1t in Europe and carried it onward. Oats seem
also TO have originated in Eastern Europe;
they are found not earlier than the Bronze Age
in Switzerland. From Plnys mention that the
Germans used oatmeal, it is concluded that the
oat was not cultivated by the Romans.
IS THE OBELISK A MASS OF CONCRETE
A correspondent OF The Scientific american.
lifelong manufactures OF lines and concreles,
states as the result of a recent examination of
the obelsk in Central Park Ills belief that 1t Is
a mass of concrete and not granite mOnOlth.
@What looked at distance" ne says to be a
gray, reddish, uniform tint, was, on close m
epectiOn, graDite brOk INTO pieces from the
size of "a walnut down to corn or wheat size, and
these broken stones were Intimately mixed
with some bituminOus matter, black and seamy,
something of the nature of asphaltum. The
black substance and broken stone were thorough
ly mixed with hydraulic lime; not cement hui
lime which contained sufficient clay to render
il hydraulic. The hydraulic lime is light in
color with a slight .yellowish tlnge peculiar to
all true hydraulic lines; such lines withstand
the action of the weather much better than the
best Portland cements With my steel point
1 could plough out this hydraulic lime, and
with my knife cut and shaved the black sub
stance, which lay In all conceivable ways, the
grain in some bits presenting their fiat sides,
sometimes their ends, sometimes vertical. some
times horizontal, showing it to have been mixed
up with the lime and broken stole haphazald.
The lime showed In SucH Juln blItak5 tHbC IL "
evident that the men who made the Obelisk
gnew how to make concrete.
The hierOglyplics show, as plain as anything
can show, that they were formed hY fastening
the proper forms on the inside of the box into
which the concI etc was rammed, aud when the
concrete had hardened sufficiently, the boxes
were taken away, and The patterns of the
heroglyphics were Withdrawn. leaving their inn
preston on the face of the concrete, exactly as
Is done every day by manufacturers of artificial
stone Such work cannot be mistaken for work
done by the chisel by anyone familiar with that
class OF work. Every letter is made to draw,
and in no place could find spot among all
the LierOglyphics where n pattern would not
Edraw' Such structure, made III concrete,
could be safely carried up at the rate OF from
twelve 10 fifteen inches per day, and so positive
am ! that 1t is concrete, that would not hesl-
fate to enter into con ract TO erect exact dup
hcates of it in any city for $4,000 EACH"
ERUPTION OF MOUNT ETNA.
Mount Etna has been in a mild form of erup-
Zion for more than month. The Naples cor
respondent OF Ihe London Times, writing on
February 90 said EtDa is again in a state Of
eruption, though apparently not OF violent
character. Professor SilVestrl, who ~ the
guardian of that vocano, as Professor Palm.
jrr1 j. of Vesuvius. writes from Catania after
- awrlo xvb