OCR Text |
Show 310 PRELU.liN ARY REMARKS, CHAP. IX. the seeds of useful plants ; and as tho soil ncar the hovels of the natives 10 would often be in some degree manured, improved varieties would sooner or later arise. Or a wild and unusually good variety of a native plant might attract the attention of Rome wise old savage; and he would transplant it, or sow its seed. That ·uporior varieties of wild fruit-trees occasionally arc found is certain, as in tho case of tho American species of hawthorns, plums, chor6os, grapes, and hickories, specified by Professor A a Gray.11 Downing also refers to certain wHd varieties of the hickory, as being "of much larger size and finer flavour than the common species." I have referred to American fruittrees, because we arc not in this case troubled with doubts whether or not tho varieties are seedlings which have escaped from cultivation. Transplanting any superior variety, or sowing its seeds, hardly implies more forethought than might be expected at an early and rude period of civilisation. Evon the Australian barbarians "have a law that no plant bearing seeds is to be dug up after it has flowered;" and Sir G. Grey 12 never saw this law, evidently framed for tho preservation of the plant, violated. We see the same spirit in the super::; titious belief of tho Fuogians, that killing water-fowl whilst very young will be followed by "much rain, snow, blow much." 13 I may add, as showing forethought in the lowest barbarians, that the Fucgians when they find a stranded whale bury ]argo portions in the 'sand, and during tho often-recurrent famines travel from great distances for tho remnants of the half-putrid mass. It has often been remarked 1 ' 1 that we do not 0\YC a single useful plant to Australia or tho Cape of Good Hopo,-countries abounding to an un1 aralleled 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 tho canary- 10 In Tierra del Fu go the spot where 1845, p. 2Cl. wigwams had formerly stood could be 12 • Journals of Expeditions in Aus- Jistingui:;I.Jcd at a great distance by tho tralia,' 1811, vol. ii. p. 292. bright green tint of tho native vegcta- 13 Darwin's 'Journal of Researches,' tion. 184:5, p. 215. 11 'American Acad. of Arts aml 14 De CttndoUe bas tabulated tho Sciences,' April lOth, 18li0, p. 413 . . facts in tho most interesting mo.nncr i..u Downing, ' The Fruits of America,' his 'Gcograp!Jio Bot.,' p. 986. <CuAP, IX. ON CULTIVATED PLA.l~TS. 311 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. But if these plants have been so greatly modified and improved by culture as no longer closely to resemble any natural species, we can understand why the above-named countries have given us no useful plantt;t, for they were either inhabited by men who did not cultivate the ground at all, as in Australia and the Cape of Good Hope, or who cultivated it very imperfectly, as in some parts of America. These countries do yield plants which are useful to savage man; and Dr. Hooker 15 enumerates no less than 107 such species in Australia alone; but those plants have not been improved, and consequently cannot compete with those which have been cultivated and improved during thousands of years in the civilised world. The case of New Zealand, to which fine island we as yet owe no widely cultivated plant, may seem opposed to this view; for, when first discovered, the natives cultivated several plants; but all inquirers believe, in accordance with tho traditions of the natives, that the early Polynesian colonists brought with them seeds and roots, as well as the dog, which had all been wisely preserved during their long voyage. The Polynesians are so frequently lost on the ocean, that this degree of prudence would occur to any wandering party: hence the early colonists of New Zealand, like the later European colonists, would not have had any strong inducement to cultivate the aboriginal plants. According to Do Canclolle we owe thirty-three useful plants to Mexico, Peru, and Chile; nor is this surprising when we remember the civilized state of the inhabitants, as shown by the fact of their having practised artificial irrigation and made tunnels through hard rocks without the use of iron or gunpowder, and who, as we shall see in a future chapter, fully recognised, as f~r as animals were concerned, and therefore probably in the case of plants, the important principle of selection. We owe some plants to Brazil; and the early voyagers, namely V cspucius and Cabral, describe the country as thickly peopled 15 'Floro. of Australia,' Introduction, p. ex. |