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Show 308 PRELIMINARY REMARKS, CHAP. IX. been found during famines to be eatable, others InJUrious to health, or even destructive to life. He met a party of Baquanas who, having been expelled by the conquering Zulus, had lived for years on any roots or leaves which afforded some little nutriment, and distended their stomachs, so as to relieve the pangs of hunger. They looked like walking skeletons, and suffered fearfully from constipation. Sir Andrew Smith also informs me that on such occasions the natives observe as a guide for themselves, what the wild animals, especially baboons and monkeys, cat. From innumerable experiments made through dire necessity by the savages of every land, with the results handed down 1y tradition, the nutritious, stimulating, and medicinal properties of the most unpromising plants were probably first discovered. It appears, for instance, at first an inexplicable fact that untutored man, in three distant quarters of the world, should have discovered amongst a host of native plants that the leaves of the tea-plant and mattee, and the berries of the coffee, all included a stimulating and nutritious essence, now known to be chemically the same. We can also see that savages suffering from severe constipation would naturally observe whether any of the roots which they devoured acted as aperients. We probably owe our knowledge of the uses of almost all plants to man having originally exist.ed in a barbarous state, and having been often compelled by severe want to try as food almost everything which he could chew and swallow. From what we know of the habits of savages in many quarters of the world, there is no reason to suppose that our cereal plants originally existed in their present state so valuable to man. Let us look to one continent alone, namely, Africa: Barth 6 states that the slaves over a large part of the central region regularly collect the seeds of a wild grass, the Pennisetum distichum; in another district he saw women collectinO' the seeds of a Poa by swinging a sort of basket through tb; rich meadow-land. Near Tete Livingstone observed the natives collecting the seeds 6 'Travels in Central Africa,' Eng. translat., vol. i. pp. 529 an£1 390; vol. ii. pp. 29, 265, 270. Livingstone's 'Travels,' p. 551. CHAP. IX. ON CULTIV .A. TED PLANTS. 309 of a wild grass; and farther south as Andersson informs me the natives largely use the seeds of a grass of about the size of canary-s?ed, which they boil in water. They eat also the roots of cer-tam reeds, and every one has read of tho Bushmen prowling about and diggi~g up with a fire-hardened stake various roots. Similar facts with respect to the collection of seeds of wild grasses in other parts of the world could be given.7 ~ccustomed as we are to our excellent vegetables and luscious fr~Its, w~ can hardly persuade ourselves that the stringy roots of the w1ld carrot and parsnip, or the little shoots of the wild asparagus, or crabs, sloes, &c., should ever have been valued; yet, from what we know of the habits of Australian and South African savages, we need feel no doubt on this head. The inhabitants of Switzerland during the Stone-period larO'ely col. lected wild crabs, sloes, bullaces, hips of roses, eld:rberries, beech-mast, and other wild berries and fruit.8 Jemmy Button a Fuegian on board the Beagle, remarked to me that the poo; and acid black-currants of 'fierra del Fuego were too sweet for his taste. The savage inhabitants of each land, having found out by many and bard trials what plants were useful, or could be Tendered useful by various cooking processes, would after a time take the first step in cultivation by planting them ncar their ~sual abode~. Livingstone 9 states that the savage Batokas sometimes left Wild fruit-trees standing in their gardens, and occasionally even planted them, "a practice seen nowhere else amongst the natives." But Du Ohaillu saw a palm and some other wild fruit-trees which bad been planted; and these trees were c~nsidered private property. The next step in cultivation, and tlm; would require but little forethought, would be to sow 7 As in both North and South America. Mr. Edgeworth (' Journal Proc. Linn. Soc.,' vol. vi. Bot., 18li2, p. 181) states that in the deserts of the Punjab poor women sweep up, " by o. whisk into straw baskets," the secus of four genera of grasses, namely, of Agrostis, Panic urn, Cenchrus, and Pennisetum, aS' well as tile SCCUS of fOUl' other genera belong-ing to distinct families. 8 Prof. 0. Hccr, 'Die Pflanzen der Pfahlbauten, 1SG5, aus dcm Neujahr. Naturforsc. Gescllschaft,' 18G6; ancl Dr. H. Christ, in Ri.itimcyer's 'Die Fauna cler Pfahlbauten,' 1861, s. 226. 9 'Travels,' p. 535. Du Cllaillu, 'Adventures in Equatorial Africa,' 18Gl, p. 44:5. |