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I may add to the one remark to the foregoing. It has often been noticed with surprise, & the fact has been brought forward most distinctly in a talk by A. de Candolle (Geograph. Bot. p. 986) that we owe none of our dom cultivated plants to Australia, New Zealand, the Cape of Good Hope, & hardly to N America north of Mexico; & to this may be added America S. La Plata (& we Know how many temperate plants are cultivated) though some of these countries are the richest in the world in diverse species.— (In evident see further on connection with this is the common remark that no new cultivated plants have been introduced for several centuries)— now if our cultivated plants are mostly in almost their aboriginal in the same state as when growing wild, the above fact of distribution would indeed be most singular, & perhaps sa in the opinion of many the more so, as we see by recent colonisation how eminently well fitted they these countries are for mankind: but if nearly all our cultivated plants are so greatly altered that their wild stocks are hardly recognizable, (& consequently that many X of the plants believed by A. de Candolle that wild stocks are only escaped seedlings as is the opinion of many very eminent men), then we can offer some explanation of the above facts for can see clearly that cultivated plants can arise only where man has been civilised / t to a pitch sufficiently to cultivate the ground (which is usually subsequent to the keeping of animals) for a very long period; as from selection it must take a very long period in most cases sensibly to acclimate plants. Now the natives of Australia & Cape of Good Hope (a) (?) did not cultivate the land;

[Variation 1: 310-11: "It has often been remarked14 that we do not owe a single useful plant to Australia or the Cape of Good Hope,—countries abounding to an unparalleled degree with endemic species,—or to New Zealand, or to America south of the Plata; and, according to some authors, not to America northward of Mexico. I do not believe that any edible or valuable plant, except the canary-grass, has been derived from an oceanic or uninhabited island. If nearly all our useful plants, natives of Europe, Asia, and South America, had originally existed in their present condition, the complete absence of similarly useful plants in the great countries just named would indeed be a surprising fact.
14 De Candolle has tabulated the facts in the most interesting manner in his 'Géographie Bot.,' p. 986."]

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18 — origin of cultivated Plants.— 18 Origin of cultivated Plants

(a)

Feb/56/ I have looked at several of old voyages in Ker & Porter about inhabitants of C. of Good Hope & find only one allusion in Sir E. Michelbourne (Vol 8. p. 89) the vegetables found viz "a Kind of roots which they have in great abundance". Chief food evidently cattle, sheep & goats.—

[Robert Kerr. 1813. A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, etc. London.]

In Penny Encyclop the Hottentots & Namaquas are spoken of as leading wandering life & subsisting of milk &c.— But the Caffres cultivate small plots of ground, but I believe these have immigrated from North.—

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in New Zealand they did (see Forster & see in Decandolle whether Batatas are believed to be aboriginal) but those who have studied the subject believe that from language & tradition that New Zealand not very long colonised, & that the Batatas with the Dog are recent importations; having the Batatas & Fern-root in time of distress, they were little urged to cultivate any aboriginal plants.— In America north of Mexico the savages hardly cultivated ground (?) (B): South America with Mexico & W. Indies has furnished 30-33 plants & fruits useful to man, but then we Know that for immense periods the natives [illeg] to the discovery, from Mexico to Chile cultivated the ground, as did in the Columbus (?) find in West Indies, & even the savages of Brazil did there (Cabral specifies fruit) (a) as now (Penny Encyclop. art. Brazil p. 362) (& I think Sarmiento or Solis fd. same even in La Plata). North & intertropical Africa according to Al Decandolle has furnished only 4, but there the native vegetation is considerably similar in part to that of the old world; & on north side but the natives of the intertropical the intertropical regions little but slightly civilised, & the northern coast so anciently frequented that all production must, I shd think have been blended with those of adjoining parts old world, that hardly possible to say what are aboriginals.— Now from these statements I shd infer that there might be plants in Australia, New Zealand, Cape of Good Hope, United States of N. America, which if

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(a) See Southeys History of Brazil.—

I see in Vespucius, who first went along Coast of Brazil that Brazil seems to have been pretty thickly peopled with villages, which probably implies cultivation — I see some of the early say no fruits

(B) see Bancroft Hist of the States.—

Ker's Voyages Vol.1 p. 26 Voyages of J. Cartier — sailed 1534.

p 26. In N. Scotia.— natives wander about no cultivation

p 48 In Canada — they have garrets to store up maize — they have beans & peas — much fruit, as musk-melon & very large cucumbers — By city of Hochelega ie Montreal fields of maize

p. 54 The Pompion, gourds, melons & Beans & peas all different from ours.— & Tobacco or at least leaves to smoke (I remember some American author maintains that some of the Cucurbitæ do come from N. America

Ker's voyages vol 5. p. 421, 424, Narvaez narrative of voyage conquering to Florida describes much maize, Pompions & Kidney Beans. p 436 do

p 504 Ferdinand de Soto in Florida speaks of Indian Corn, Pulse & dried fruit.— Florida near S. United States.—

It seems general opinion that Phaseolus chiefly E. Indian. but Decandolle p. 962 note says Ph. caracalla comes from Brazil.—

Decandolle p. 985 says U. States had not primarily one single nutritive plant. How can this be with the above statements?

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the land had been people had been more civilised, for many thousand years would have yielded useful plants. It might be said that they are not civilised & cd not be because they have no aboriginal plants, but now to take the case of America, south of Chiloe: if the celery, the Potatoes & celery which exist in these regions had been confined to these regions, from the state of the natives these very useful plants undoubtedly cd have remained to this day in their aboriginal & almost useless condition; so again the natives have a black currant, & several a few other berry bearing bushes, I can hardly doubt had these savages became more civilised, we shd have had fruit. like our nearly as good or quite as good as our gooseberries, currants & raspberries.— (Study A. Gray for identical or analogue of Carrot, Parsnip, Celery. The Vine did grow & is now coming into case. — Wild Crab. Pear. Vicia...—)

In Benthams Review of Targioni p. 41. there is a Morus rubra from N. America is f. found here & there in Italian Gardens.— So again there is the Juglans nigra — (see range of all these in Asa Gray's) Might not these if ameliorated have spread?

In regard to the remark often made that no cultivated plant has been added to our list since the discovery of America, the surprise felt is obviously related to the wide geographical extension of our Knowledge many countries discovered since that period & so is related to the subject just discussed.

With respect to the old world, when a country is well stocked with cultivated plants there is evidently less inducement to bring in new cultivated, as the notion that nearly all these are widely altered plants. This leads to another discussion. A. Decandolle has remarked especially in regard to the [coualia] (p. 929) with apparently great force, that in forms of our cultivated

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plants having existed in nearly their present condition when wild, that they would not have been seized on by man, "if not of some weight & nourishing almost as at the present day".— (a) But the wild carrot & parsnip seem opposed to such a conclusion.— I think the extremely curious facts given by Sir G. Grey in his Travels in Australia (read skim again) throw great light on this, & indeed on even the discovery even of the medicinal, intoxicating & pleasant effect of plants as Tobacco Cocas as in Tea, Coffee, Mattee (who has not marvelled as almost savages having practically discerned similar properties in the 3 last named which only recently chemist has discovered to contain closely allied essences.) viz that in times of Famine, savages try cooked and uncooked almost every-thing which grows.— In the next stage of civilization they wd plant such plants & then they would rapidly slowly discover some amelioration, & observe chance improvements & select such.— Savages in N. America collect seeds of some water grass (Zizania aquatica?) = yet other cases. =

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(a)

p 930. "Plus on suppose l'agriculture ancienne et remontant a une époque d'ignorance, plus il est probable que les cultivateurs avaient choisi des especes offrant a l'origine même, un avantage incontestable."

[Variation 1: 307: "MM. Loiseleur-Deslongchamps4 and De Candolle have remarked that our cultivated plants, more especially the cereals, must originally have existed in nearly their present state; for otherwise they would not have been noticed and valued as objects of food.
4 'Considérations sur les Céréales,' 1842, p. 37. 'Géographie Bot.,' 1855, p. 930. 'Plus on suppose l'agriculture ancienne et remontant à une époque d'ignorance, plus il est probable que les cultivateurs avaient choisi des espèces offrant à l'origine même un avantage incontestable.'"]