annual, biennial, or perennial, which Heer suspected to be uncertain, is
vague, especially for the _angustifolium_; for Loret, who has observed
this flax in the neighbourhood of Montpellier, says,[582] “In very hot
countries it is nearly always an annual, and this is the case in Sicily
according to Gussone; with us it is annual, biennial, or perennial,
according to the nature of the soil in which it grows; and this may be
ascertained by observing it on the shore, notably at Maguelone. There it
may be seen that along the borders of trodden paths it lasts longer than
on the sand, where the sun soon dries up the roots and the acidity of
the soil prevents the plant from enduring more than a year.”
When forms and physiological conditions pass from one into another, and
are distinguished by characters which vary according to circumstances,
we are led to consider the individuals as constituting a single species,
although these forms and conditions possess a certain degree of
heredity, and date perhaps from very early times. We are, however,
forced to consider them separately in our researches into their origin.
I shall first indicate in what country each variety has been discovered
in a wild or half-wild state. I shall then speak of cultivation, and we
shall see how far geographical and historical facts confirm the opinion
of the unity of species.
The _common annual flax_ has not yet been discovered, with absolute
certainty, in a wild state. I possess several specimens of it from
India, and Planchon saw others in the herbarium at Kew; but Anglo-Indian
botanists do not admit that the plant is indigenous in British India.
The recent flora of Sir Joseph Hooker speaks of it as a species
cultivated principally for the oil extracted from the seeds; and Mr. C.
B. Clarke, formerly director of the botanical gardens in Calcutta,
writes to me that the specimens must have been cultivated, its
cultivation being very common in winter in the north of India.
Boissier[583] mentions _L. humile_, with narrow leaves, which Kotschy
gathered “near Schiraz in Persia, at the foot of the mountain called
Sabst Buchom.” This is, perhaps, a spot far removed from cultivation;
but I cannot give satisfactory information on this head. Hohenacker
found _L. usitatissimum_ “half wild” in the province of _Talysch_, to
the south of the Caucasus, towards the Caspian Sea.[584] Steven is more
positive with regard to Southern Russia.[585] According to him, it “is
found pretty often on the barren hills to the south of the Crimea,
between Jalta and Nikita; and Nordmann found it on the eastern coast of
the Black Sea.” Advancing westward in Southern Russia, or in the region
of the Mediterranean, the species is but rarely mentioned, and only as
escaped from cultivation, or half wild. In spite of doubts and of the
scanty data which we possess, I think it very possible that the annual
flax, in one or other of these two forms, may be wild in the district
between the south of Persia and the Crimea, at least in a few
localities.
The _winter flax_ is only known under cultivation in a few provinces of
Italy.[586]
The _Linum ambiguum_ of Jordan grows on the coast of Provence and of
Languedoc in dry places.[587]
Lastly, _Linum angustifolium_, which hardly differs from the preceding,
has a well-defined and rather large area. It grows wild, especially on
hills throughout the region of which the Mediterranean forms the centre;
that is, in the Canaries and Madeira, in Marocco,[588] Algeria,[589] and
as far as the Cyrenaic;[590] from the south of Europe, as far as
England,[591] the Alps, and the Balkan Mountains; and lastly, in Asia
from the south of the Caucasus[592] to Lebanon and Palestine.[593] I do
not find it mentioned in the Crimea, nor beyond the Caspian Sea.
Let us now turn to the cultivation of flax, destined in most instances
to furnish a textile substance, often also to yield oil, and cultivated
among certain peoples for the nutritious properties of the seed. I first
studied the question of its origin in 1855,[594] and with the following
result:—
It was abundantly shown that the ancient Egyptians and the Hebrews made
use of linen stuffs. Herodotus affirms this. Moreover, the plant may be
seen figured in the ancient Egyptian drawings, and the microscope
indubitably shows that the bandages which bind the mummies are of
linen.[595] The culture of flax is of ancient date in Europe; it was
known to the Kelts, and in India according to history. Lastly, the
widely different common names indicate likewise an ancient cultivation
or long use in different countries. The Keltic name _lin_, and
Greco-Latin _linon_ or _linum_, has no analogy with the Hebrew
_pischta_,[596] nor with the Sanskrit names _ooma_, _atasi_,
_utasi_.[597] A few botanists mention the flax as “nearly wild” in the
south-east of Russia, to the south of the Caucasus and to the east of
Siberia, but it was not known to be truly wild. I then summed up the
probabilities, saying, “The varying etymology of the names, the
antiquity of cultivation in Egypt, in Europe, and in the north of India,
the circumstance that in the latter district flax is cultivated for the
yield of oil alone, lead me to believe that two or three species of
different origin, confounded by most authors under the name of _Linum
usitatissimum_, were formerly cultivated in different countries, without
imitation or communication the one with the other.... I am very doubtful
whether the species cultivated by the ancient Egyptians was the species
indigenous in Russia and in Siberia.”
My conjectures were confirmed ten years later by a very curious
discovery made by Oswald Heer. The lake-dwellers of Eastern Switzerland,
at a time when they only used stone implements, and did not know the use
of hemp, cultivated and wove a flax which is not our common annual
flax, but the perennial flax called _Linum angustifolium_, which is wild
south of the Alps. This is shown by the examination of the capsules,
seeds, and especially of the lower part of a plant carefully extracted
from the sediment at Robenhausen.[598] The illustration published by
Heer shows distinctly a root surmounted by from two to four stems after
the manner of perennial plants. The stems had been cut, whereas our
common flax is plucked up by the roots, another proof of the persistent
nature of the plant. With the remains of the Robenhausen flax some
grains of _Silene cretica_ were found, a species which is also foreign
to Switzerland, and abundant in Italy in the fields of flax.[599] Hence
Heer concluded that the Swiss lake-dwellers imported the seeds of the
Italian flax. This was apparently the case, unless we suppose that the
climate of Switzerland at that time differed from that of our own epoch,
for the perennial flax would not at the present day survive the winters
of Eastern Switzerland.[600] Heer’s opinion is supported by the
surprising fact that flax has not been found among the remains of the
lake-dwellings of Laybach and Mondsee of the Austrian States, where
bronze has been discovered.[601] The late epoch of the introduction of
flax into this region excludes the hypothesis that the inhabitants of
Switzerland received it from Eastern Europe, from which, moreover, they
were separated by immense forests.
Since the ingenious observations of the Zürich _savant_, a flax has been
discovered which was employed by the prehistoric inhabitants of the
peat-mosses of Lagozza, in Lombardy; and Sordelli has shown that it was
the same as that of Robenhausen, _L. angustifolium_.[602] This ancient
people was ignorant of the use of hemp and of metals, but they possessed
the same cereals as the Swiss lake-dwellers of the stone age, and ate
like them the acorns of _Quercus robur_, var. _sessiliflora_. There was,
therefore, a civilization which had reached a certain development on
both sides of the Alps, before metals, even bronze, were in common use,
and before hemp and the domestic fowl were known.[603] It was probably
before the arrival of the Aryans in Europe, or soon after that
event.[604]
The common names of the flax in ancient European languages may throw
some light on this question.
The name _lin_, _llin_, _linu_, _linon_, _linum_, _lein_, _lan_, exists
in all the European languages of Aryan origin of the centre and south of
Europe, Keltic, Slavonic, Greek, or Latin. This name is, however, not
common to the Aryan languages of India; consequently, as Pictet[605]
justly says, the cultivation must have been begun by the western Aryans,
and before their arrival in Europe. Another idea occurred to me which
led me into further researches, but they were unproductive. I thought
that, since this flax was cultivated by the lake-dwellers of Switzerland
and Italy before the arrival of the Aryan peoples, it was probably also
grown by the Iberians, who then occupied Spain and Gaul; and perhaps
some special name for it has remained among the Basques, the supposed
descendants of the Iberians. Now, according to several dictionaries of
their language,[606] _liho_, _lino_, or _li_, according to the dialects,
signifies flax, which agrees with the name diffused throughout Southern
Europe. The Basques seem, therefore, to have received flax from peoples
of Aryan origin, or perhaps they have lost the ancient name and
substituted that of the Kelts and Romans. The name _flachs_ or _flax_ of
the Teutonic languages comes from the Old German _flahs_. There are also
special names in the north-west of Europe—_pellawa_, _aiwina_, in
Finnish;[607] _hor_, _härr_, _hor_, in Danish;[608] _hor_ and _tone_ in
ancient Gothic.[609] _Haar_ exists in the German of Salzburg.[610] This
word may be in the ordinary sense of the German for thread or hair, as
the name _li_ may be connected with the same root as _ligare_, to bind,
and as _hör_, in the plural _hörvar_, is connected by philologists[611]
with _harva_, the German root for _Flachs_; but it is, nevertheless, a
fact that in Scandinavian countries and in Finland terms have been used
which differ from those employed throughout the south of Europe. This
variety shows the antiquity of the cultivation, and agrees with the fact
that the lake-dwellers of Switzerland and Italy cultivated a species of
flax before the first invasion of the Aryans. It is possible, I might
even say probable, that the latter imported the name _li_ rather than
the plant or its cultivation; but as there is no wild flax in the north
of Europe, an ancient people, the Finns, of Turanian origin, introduced
the flax into the north before the Aryans. In this case they must have
cultivated the annual flax, for the perennial variety will not bear the
severity of the northern winters; while we know how favourable the
climate of Riga is in summer to the cultivation of the annual flax. Its
first introduction into Gaul, Switzerland, and Italy may have been from
the south, by the Iberians, and in Finland by the Finns; and the Aryans
may have afterwards diffused those names which were commonest among
themselves—that of _linum_ in the south, and of _flahs_ in the north.
Perhaps the Aryans and Finns had brought the annual flax from Asia,
which would soon have been substituted for the perennial variety, which
is less productive and less adapted to cold countries. It is not known
precisely at what epoch the cultivation of the annual flax in Italy took
the place of that of the perennial _linum angustifolium_, but it must
have been before the Christian era; for Latin authors speak of a
well-established cultivation, and Pliny says that the flax was sown in
spring and rooted up in the summer.[612] Metal implements were not then
wanting, and therefore the flax would have been cut if it had been
perennial. Moreover, the latter, if sown in spring, would not have
ripened till autumn.
For the same reasons the flax cultivated by the ancient Egyptians must
have been an annual. Hitherto neither entire plants nor a great number
of capsules have been found in the catacombs of a nature to furnish
direct and incontestable proof. Unger[613] alone was able to examine a
capsule taken from the bricks of a monument, which Leipsius attributes
to the thirteenth or fourteenth century before Christ, and he found it
more like those of _L. usitatissimum_ than of _L. angustifolium_. Out of
three seeds which Braun[614] saw in the Berlin Museum, mixed with those
of other cultivated plants, one appeared to him to belong to _L.
angustifolium_, and the other to _L. humile_; but it must be owned that
a single seed without plant or capsule is not sufficient proof. Ancient
Egyptian paintings show that flax was not reaped with a sickle like
cereals, but uprooted.[615] In Egypt flax is cultivated in the winter,
for the summer drought would no more allow of a perennial variety, than
the cold of northern countries, where it is sown in spring, to be
gathered in summer. It may be added that the annual flax of the variety
called _humile_ is the only one now grown in Abyssinia, and also the
only one that modern collectors have seen in Egypt.[616]
Heer suggests that the ancient Egyptians may have cultivated _L.
angustifolium_ of the Mediterranean region, sowing it as an annual
plant.[617] I am more inclined to believe that they had previously
imported or received their flax from Egypt, already in the form of the
species _L. humile_. Their modes of cultivation, and the figures on the
monuments, show that their knowledge of the plant dated from a remote
antiquity. Now it is known that the Egyptians of the first dynasties
before Cheops belonged to a proto-semitic race, which came into Egypt by
the isthmus of Suez.[618] Flax has been found in a tomb of ancient
Chaldea prior to the existence of Babylon,[619] and its use in this
region is lost in the remotest antiquity. Thus the first Egyptians of
white race may have imported the cultivated flax, or their immediate
successors may have received it from Asia before the epoch of the
Phœnician colonies in Greece, and before direct communication was
established between Greece and Egypt under the fourteenth dynasty.[620]
A very early introduction of the plant into Egypt from Asia does not
prevent us from admitting that it was at different times taken from the
East to the West at a later epoch than that of the first Egyptian
dynasties. Thus the western Aryans and the Phœnicians may have
introduced into Europe a flax more advantageous than _L. angustifolium_
during the period from 2500 to 1200 years before our era.
The cultivation of the plant by the Aryans must have extended further
north than that by the Phœnicians. In Greece, at the time of the Trojan
war, fine linen stuffs were still imported from Colchis; that is to say,
from that region at the foot of the Caucasus where the common annual
flax has been found wild in modern times. It does not appear that the
Greeks cultivated the plant at that epoch.[621] The Aryans had perhaps
already introduced its cultivation into the valley of the Danube.
However, I noticed just now that the lacustrine remains of Mondsee and
Laybach show no trace of any flax. In the last centuries before the
Christian era the Romans procured very fine linen from Spain, although
the names of the plant in that country do not tend to show that the
Phœnicians introduced it. There is not any Oriental name existing in
Europe belonging either to antiquity or to the Middle Ages. The Arabic
name _kattan_, _kettane_, or _kittane_, of Persian origin,[622] has
spread westward only among the Kabyles of Algeria.[623]
The sum of facts and probabilities appear to me to lead to the following
statements, which may be accepted until they are modified by further
discoveries.
1. _Linum angustifolium_, usually perennial, rarely biennial or annual,
which is found wild from the Canary Isles to Palestine and the Caucasus,
was cultivated in Switzerland and the north of Italy by peoples more
ancient than the conquerors of Aryan race. Its cultivation was replaced
by that of the annual flax.
2. The annual flax (_L. usitatissimum_), cultivated for at least four
thousand or five thousand years in Mesopotamia, Assyria, and Egypt, was
and still is wild in the districts included between the Persian Gulf,
the Caspian Sea, and the Black Sea.
3. This annual flax appears to have been introduced into the north of
Europe by the Finns (of Turanian race), afterwards into the rest of
Europe by the western Aryans, and perhaps here and there by the
Phœnicians; lastly into Hindustan by the eastern Aryans, after their
separation from the European Aryans.
4. These two principal forms or conditions of flax exist in cultivation,
and have probably been wild in their modern areas for the last five
thousand years at least. It is not possible to guess at their previous
condition. Their transitions and varieties are so numerous that they may
be considered as one species comprising two or three hereditary
varieties, which are each again divided into sub-varieties.
+Jute+—_Corchorus capsularis_ and _Corchorus olitorius_, Linnæus.
The fibres of the jute, imported in great quantities in the last few
years, especially into England, are taken from the stem of these two
species of Corchorus, annuals of the family of the Tiliaceæ. The leaves
are also used as a vegetable.
_C. capsularis_ has a nearly spherical fruit, flattened at the top, and
surrounded by longitudinal ridges. There is a good coloured illustration
of it in the work of the younger Jacquin, _Eclogæ_, pl. 119. _C.
olitorius_, on the contrary, has a long fruit, like the pod of a
Crucifer. It is figured in the _Botanical Magazine_, fig. 2810, and in
Lamarck, fig. 478.
The species of the genus are distributed nearly equally in the warm
regions of Asia, Africa, and America; consequently the origin of each
cannot be guessed. It must be sought in floras and herbaria, with the
help of historical and other data.
_Corchorus capsularis_ is commonly cultivated in the Sunda Islands, in
Ceylon, in the peninsula of Hindustan, in Bengal, in Southern China, in
the Philippine Islands,[624] generally in Southern Asia. Forster does
not mention it in his work on the plants in use among the inhabitants of
the Pacific, whence it may be inferred that at the time of Cook’s
voyages, a century ago, its cultivation had not spread in that
direction. It may even be suspected from this fact that it does not date
from a very remote epoch in the isles of the Indian Archipelago.
Blume says that _Corchorus capsularis_ grows in the marshes of Java near
Parang,[625] and I have two specimens from Java which are not given as
cultivated.[626] Thwaites mentions it as “very common” in Ceylon.[627]
On the continent of Asia, authors speak more of it as a plant cultivated
in Bengal and China. Wight, who gives a good illustration of the plant,
does not mention its native place. Edgeworth,[628] who has studied on
the spot the flora of the district of Banda, says that it is found in
“the fields.” In the _Flora of British India_, Masters, who drew up the
article on the Tiliaceæ from the herbarium at Kew, says “in the hottest
regions of India, cultivated in most tropical countries.”[629] I have a
specimen from Bengal which is not given as cultivated. Loureiro says
“wild, and cultivated in the province of Canton in China,”[630] which
probably means wild in Cochin-China, and cultivated in Canton. In Japan
the plant grows in cultivated soil.[631] In conclusion, I am not
convinced that the species exists in a truly wild state north of
Calcutta, although it may perhaps have spread from cultivation and have
sown itself here and there.
_C. capsularis_ has been introduced into various parts of tropical
Africa and even of America, but it is only cultivated on a large scale
for the production of jute thread in Southern Asia, and especially in
Bengal.
_C. olitorius_ is more used as a vegetable than for its fibres. Out of
Asia it is employed exclusively for the leaves. It is one of the
commonest of culinary plants among the modern Egyptians and Syrians, who
call it in Arabic _melokych_, but it is not likely that they had any
knowledge of it in ancient times, as we know of no Hebrew name.[632] The
present inhabitants of Crete cultivate it under the name of
_mouchlia_,[633] evidently derived from the Arabic, and the ancient
Greeks were not acquainted with it.
According to several authors[634] this species of Corchorus is wild in
several provinces of British India. Thwaites says it is common in the
hot districts of Ceylon; but in Java, Blume only mentions it as growing
among rubbish (_in ruderatis_). I cannot find it mentioned in
Cochin-China or Japan. Boissier saw specimens from Mesopotamia,
Afghanistan, Syria, and Anatolia, but gives as a general indication,
“culta, et in ruderatis subspontanea.” No Sanskrit name for the two
cultivated species of Corchorus is known.[635]
Touching the indigenous character of the plant in Africa, Masters, in
Oliver’s _Flora of Tropical Africa_ (i. p. 262), says, “wild, or
cultivated as a vegetable throughout tropical Africa.” He attributes to
the same species two plants from Guinea which G. Don had described as
different, and as to whose wild nature he probably knew nothing. I have
a specimen from Kordofan gathered by Kotschy, No. 45, “on the borders of
the fields of sorghum.” Peters, as far as I know, is the only author who
asserts that the plant is wild. He found _C. olitorius_ “in dry places,
and also in the meadows in the neighbourhood of Sena and Tette.”
Schweinfurth only gives it as a cultivated plant in the whole Nile
Valley.[636] This is also the case in the flora of Senegambia by
Guillemin, Perrottet, and Richard.
To sum up, _C. olitorius_ seems to be wild in the moderately warm
regions of Western India, of Kordofan, and probably of some intermediate
countries. It must have spread from the coast of Timor, and as far as
Northern Australia, into Africa and towards Anatolia, in the wake of a
cultivation not perhaps of earlier date than the Christian era, even at
its origin.
In spite of the assertions made in various works, the cultivation of
this plant is rarely indicated in America. I note, however, on
Grisebach’s authority,[637] that it has become naturalized in Jamaica
from gardens, as often happens in the case of cultivated annuals.
+Sumach.+—_Rhus coriaria._
This tree is cultivated in Spain and Italy[638] for the young shoots and
leaves, which are dried and made into a powder for tanning. I recently
saw a plantation in Sicily, of which the product was exported to
America. As oak-bark becomes more rare and substances for tanning are
more in demand, it is probable that this cultivation will spread; all
the more that it is suitable to sandy, sterile regions. In Algeria,
Australia, at the Cape, and in the Argentine Republic, it might be
introduced with advantage.[639] Ancient peoples used the slightly acid
fruits as a seasoning, and the custom has lingered here and there; but I
find no proof that they cultivated the species.
It grows wild in the Canaries and in Madeira, in the Mediterranean
region and in the neighbourhood of the Black Sea, preferring dry and
stony ground. In Asia its area extends as far as the south of the
Caucasus, the Caspian Sea, and Persia.[640] The species is so common
that it may have been in use before it was cultivated.
Sumach is the Persian and Tartar name;[641] _rous_, _rhus_, the ancient
name among the Greeks and Romans.[642] A proof of the persistence of
certain common names is found in the French “Currier’s _roux_ or
_roure_.”
+Khât+, or +Arab Tea+—_Catha edulis_, Forskal; _Celastrus edulis_, Vahl.
This shrub, belonging to the family of the _Celastraceæ_, is largely
cultivated in Abyssinia, under the name of _tchut_ or _tchat_, and in
Arabia under that of _cat_ or _gat_. Its leaves are chewed, when green,
like those of the coca in America, and they have the same exciting and
strengthening properties. Those of uncultivated plants have a stronger
taste, and are even intoxicating. Botta saw that in Yemen as much
importance is attributed to the cultivation of the _Catha_ as to that of
coffee, and he mentions that a sheik, who is obliged to receive many
visits of ceremony, bought as much as a hundred francs’ worth of leaves
a day.[643] In Abyssinia an infusion is also made from the leaves.[644]
In spite of the eagerness with which stimulants are sought, this species
has not spread into the adjoining countries, such as Beluchistan,
Southern India, etc., where it might succeed.
The _Catha_ is wild in Abyssinia,[645] but has not yet been found wild
in Arabia. It is true that the interior of the country is nearly unknown
to botanists. It cannot be ascertained from Botta’s account whether the
wild plants he mentions are wild and indigenous, or escaped from
cultivation and more or less naturalized. Perhaps the _Catha_ was
introduced from Abyssinia with the coffee plant, which likewise has not
been discovered wild in Arabia.
+Maté+—_Ilex paraguariensis_, Saint-Hilaire.
The inhabitants of Brazil and of Paraguay have employed from time
immemorial the leaves of this shrub, as the Chinese have those of the
tea plant. They gather them especially in the damp forests of the
interior, between the degrees of 20 and 30 south latitude, and commerce
transports them dried to great distances throughout the greater part of
South America. These leaves contain, with aroma and tannin, a principle
analogous to that of tea and coffee; they are not, however, much liked
in the countries where Chinese tea is known. The plantations of maté are
not yet as important as the product of the wild shrub, but they may
increase as the population increases. Moreover, the preparation is
simpler than that of tea, as the leaves are not rolled.
Illustrations and descriptions of the species, with a number of details
about its use and properties, may be found in the works of
Saint-Hilaire, of Sir William Hooker, and of Martius.[646]
+Coca.+—_Erythroxylon Coca_, Lamarck.
The natives of Peru and of the neighbouring provinces, at least in the
hot moist regions, cultivate this shrub, of which they chew the leaves,
as the natives of India chew the leaves of the betel. It is a very
ancient custom, which has spread even into elevated regions, where the
species cannot live. Now that it is known how to extract the essential
part of the coca, and its virtues are recognized as a tonic, which gives
strength to endure fatigue without having the drawbacks of alcoholic
liquors, it is probable that an attempt will be made to extend its
cultivation in America and elsewhere. In Guiana, for instance, the Malay
Archipelago, or the valleys of Sikkim and Assam, or in Hindustan, since
both moisture and heat are requisite. Frost is very injurious to the
species. The best sites are the slopes of hills where water cannot lie.
An attempt made in the neighbourhood of Lima failed, because of the
infrequency of rain and perhaps because of insufficient heat.[647]
I shall not repeat here what may be found in several excellent treatises
on the coca;[648] I need only say that the original home of the species
in America is not yet clearly ascertained. Gosse has shown that early
authors, such as Joseph de Jussieu, Lamarck, and Cavanilles, had only
seen cultivated specimens. Mathews gathered it in Peru, in the ravine
(_quebrada_) of Chinchao,[649] which appears to be a place beyond the
limits of cultivation. Some specimens from Cuchero, collected by
Poeppig,[650] are said to be wild; but the traveller himself was not
convinced of their wild nature.[651] D’Orbigny thinks he saw the wild
coca on a hill in the eastern part of Bolivia.[652] Lastly, M. André has
had the courtesy to send me the specimens of _Erythroxylon_ in his
herbarium, and I recognized the coca in several specimens from the
valley of the river Cauca in New Granada, with the note “in abundance,
wild or half-wild.” Triana, however, does not admit that the species is
wild in his country, New Granada.[653] Its extreme importance in Peru at
the time of the Incas, compared to the rarity of its use in New Granada,
seems to show that it has escaped from cultivation in places where it
occurs in the latter country, and that the species is indigenous only in
the east of Peru and Bolivia, according to the indications of the
travellers mentioned above.
+Dyer’s Indigo.+—_Indigofera tinctoria_, Linnæus.
The Sanskrit name is _nili_.[654] The Latin name, _indicum_, shows that
the Romans knew that the indigo was a substance brought from India. As
to the wild nature of the plant, Roxburgh says, “Native place unknown,
for, though it is now common in a wild state in most of the provinces of
India, it is seldom found far from the districts where it is now
cultivated, or has been cultivated formerly.” Wight and Royle, who have
published illustrations of the species, tell us nothing on this head,
and more recent Indian floras mention the plant as cultivated.[655]
Several other indigoes are wild in India.
This species has been found in the sands of Senegal,[656] but it is not
mentioned in other African localities, and as it is often cultivated in
Senegal, it seems probable that it is naturalized. The existence of a
Sanskrit name renders its Asiatic origin most probable.
+Silver Indigo+—_Indigofera argentea._
This species is certainly wild in Abyssinia, Nubia, Kordofan, and
Senaar.[657] It is cultivated in Egypt and Arabia. Hence we might
suppose that it was from this species that the ancient Egyptians
extracted a blue dye;[658] but perhaps they imported their indigo from
India, for its cultivation in Egypt is probably not of earlier date than
the Middle Ages.[659]
A slightly different form, which Roxburgh gives as a separate species
(_Indigofera cærulea_), and which appears rather to be a variety, is
wild in the plains of the peninsula of Hindustan and of Beluchistan.
+American Indigoes.+
There are probably one or two indigoes indigenous in America, but ill
defined, and often intermixed in cultivation with the species of the old
world, and naturalized beyond the limits of cultivation. This
interchange makes the matter too uncertain for me to venture upon any
researches into their original habitat. Some authors have thought that
_I. Anil_, Linnæus, was one of these species. Linnæus, however, says
that his plant came from India (_Mantissa_, p. 273). The blue dye of the
ancient Mexicans was extracted from a plant which, according to
Hernandez’ account,[660] differs widely from the indigoes.
+Henna+—_Lawsonia alba_, Lamarck (_Lawsonia inermis_ and _L. spinosa_ of
different authors).
The custom among Eastern women of staining their nails red with the
juice of henna-leaves dates from a remote antiquity, as ancient Egyptian
paintings and mummies show.
It is difficult to know when and in what country this species was first
cultivated to fulfil the requirements of a fashion as absurd as it is
persistent, but it may be from a very early epoch, since the inhabitants
of Babylon, Nineveh, and the towns of Egypt had gardens. It may be left
to scholars to show whether the practice of staining the nails began in
Egypt under this or that dynasty, before or after certain relations were
established with Eastern nations. It is enough for our purpose to know
that _Lawsonia_, a shrub belonging to the order of the Lythraceæ, is
more or less wild in the warm regions of Western Asia and of Africa to
the north of the equator.
I have in my possession specimens from India, Java, Timor, even from
China[661] and Nubia, which are not said to be taken from cultivated
plants, and others from Guiana and the West Indies, which are doubtless
furnished by the imported species. Stocks found it indigenous in
Beluchistan.[662] Roxburgh also considered it to be wild on the
Coromandel[663] coast, and Thwaites[664] mentions it in Ceylon in a
manner which seems to show that it is wild there. Clarke[665] says,
“very common, and cultivated in India, perhaps wild in the eastern
part.” It is possible that it spread into India from its original home,
as into Amboyna[666] in the seventeenth century, and perhaps more
recently into the West Indies,[667] in the wake of cultivation; for the
plant is valued for the scent of its flowers, as well as for the dye,
and is easily propagated by seed. There is the same doubt as to whether
it is indigenous in Persia, Arabia, and Egypt (an essentially cultivated
country), in Nubia, and even in Guinea, where specimens have been
gathered.[668] It is even possible that the area of this shrub extends
from India to Nubia. Such a wide geographical distribution is, however,
always somewhat rare. The common names may furnish some indication.
A Sanskrit name, _sakachera_,[669] is attributed to the species, but as
it has left no trace in the different modern languages of India, I am
inclined to doubt its reality. The Persian name _hanna_ is more widely
diffused and retained than any other (_hina_ of the Hindus, _henneh_ and
_alhenna_ of the Arabs, _kinna_ of the modern Greeks). That of _cypros_,
used by the Syrians of the time of Dioscorides,[670] has not found so
much favour. This fact supports the opinion that the species grew
originally on the borders of Persia, and that its use as well as its
cultivation spread from the East to the West, from Asia into Africa.
+Tobacco+—_Nicotiana Tabacum_, Linnæus; and other species of
_Nicotiana_.
At the time of the discovery of America, the custom of smoking, of
snuff-taking, or of chewing tobacco was diffused over the greater part
of this vast continent. The accounts of the earliest travellers, of
which the famous anatomist Tiedemann[671] has made a very complete
collection, show that the inhabitants of South America did not smoke,
but chewed tobacco or took snuff, except in the district of La Plata,
Uruguay, and Paraguay, where no form of tobacco was used. In North
America, from the Isthmus of Panama and the West Indies as far as Canada
and California, the custom of smoking was universal, and circumstances
show that it was also very ancient. Pipes, in great numbers and of
wonderful workmanship, have been discovered in the tombs of the Aztecs
in Mexico[672] and in the mounds of the United States; some of them
represent animals foreign to North America.[673]
As the tobacco plant is an annual which gives a great quantity of seeds,
it was easy to sow and to cultivate or naturalize them more or less in
the neighbourhood of dwellings, but it must be noted that different
species of the genus Nicotiana were employed in different parts of
America, which shows that they had not all the same origin. _Nicotiana
Tabacum_, commonly cultivated, was the most widely diffused, and
sometimes the only one in use in South America and the West Indies. The
use of tobacco was introduced into La Plata, Paraguay,[674] and Uruguay
by the Spaniards, consequently we must look further to the north for the
origin of the plant. De Martius does not think it was indigenous in
Brazil,[675] and he adds that the ancient Brazilians smoked the leaves
of a species belonging to their country known to botanists as _Nicotiana
Langsdorfii_. When I went into the question in 1855,[676] I had not been
able to discover any wild specimens of _Nicotiana Tabacum_ except those
sent by Blanchet from the province of Bahia, numbered 3223, _a_. No
author, either before or since that time, has been more fortunate, and I
see that Messrs. Flückiger and Hanbury, in their excellent work on
vegetable drugs,[677] say positively, “The common tobacco is a native of
the new world, though not now known in a wild state.” I venture to
gainsay this assertion, although the wild nature of a plant may always
be disputed in the case of a plant which spreads so easily from
cultivation.
We find in herbaria a number of specimens gathered in Peru without
indication that they were cultivated or that they grew near plantations.
Boissier’s herbarium contains two specimens collected by Pavon, from
different localities.[678] Pavon says in his flora that the species
grows in the moist warm forests of the Peruvian Andes, and that it is
cultivated. But—and this is more significant—Edouard André gathered
specimens in the republic of Ecquador at Saint Nicholas, on the western
slope of the volcano of Corazon in a virgin forest. These he was kind
enough to send me. They are evidently the tall variety (four to six
feet) of _N. Tabacum_, with the upper leaves narrow and acuminate, as
they are represented in the plates of Hayne and Miller.[679] The lower
leaves are wanting. The flower, which gives the true characters of the
species, is certainly that of _N. Tabacum_, and it is well known that
the height of this plant and the breadth of the leaves vary in
cultivation.[680] It is very possible that its original country extended
north as far as Mexico, as far south as Bolivia, and eastward to
Venezuela.
_Nicotiana rustica_, Linnæus, a species with yellow flowers, very
different from _Tabacum_,[681] and which yields a coarse kind of
tobacco, was more often cultivated by the Mexicans and the native tribes
north of Mexico. I have a specimen brought from California by Douglas in
1837, a time when colonists were still few; but American authorities do
not admit that the plant is wild, and Dr. Asa Gray says that it sows
itself in waste places.[682] This was perhaps the case with the
specimens in Boissier’s herbarium, gathered in Peru by Pavon, and which
he does not mention in the Peruvian flora. The species grows in
abundance about Cordova in the Argentine Republic,[683] but from what
epoch is unknown. From the ancient use of the plant and the home of the
most analogous species, the probabilities are in favour of a Mexican,
Texan, or Californian origin.
Several botanists, even Americans, have believed that the species came
from the old world. This is certainly a mistake, although the plant has
spread here and there even into our forests, and sometimes in
abundance,[684] having escaped from cultivation. Authors of the
sixteenth century spoke of it as a foreign plant introduced into gardens
and sometimes spreading from them.[685] It occurs in some herbaria under
the names of _N. tartarica_, _turcica_, or _sibirica_; but these are
garden-grown specimens, and no botanist has found the species in Asia,
or on the borders of Asia, with any appearance of wildness.
This leads me to refute a widespread and more persistent error, in spite
of what I proved in 1855, namely, that of regarding some species ill
described from cultivated specimens as natives of the old world, of Asia
in particular. The proofs of an American origin are so numerous and
consistent that, without entering much into detail, I may sum them up as
follows:—
_A._ Out of fifty species of the genus Nicotiana found in a wild state,
two only are foreign to America; namely, _N. suavolens_ of New Holland,
with which is joined _N. rotundifolia_ of the same country, and that
which Ventinat had wrongly styled _N. undulata_; and _N. fragans_,
Hooker, of the Isle of Pines, near New Caledonia, which differs very
little from the preceding.
_B._ Though the Asiatic people are great lovers of tobacco, and have
from a very early epoch sought the smoke of certain narcotic plants,
none of them made use of tobacco before the discovery of America.
Tiedemann has distinctly proved this fact by thorough researches into
the writings of travellers in the Middle Ages.[686] He even quotes for a
later epoch, not long after the discovery of America, between 1540 and
1603, the fact that several travellers, some of whom were botanists,
such as Belon and Rauwolf, who travelled through the Turkish and Persian
empires, observing their customs with much attention, have not once
mentioned tobacco. It was evidently introduced into Turkey at the
beginning of the seventeenth century, and the Persians soon received it
from the Turks. The first European who mentions the smoking of tobacco
in Persia is Thomas Herbert, in 1626. No later travellers have omitted
to notice the use of the hookah as well established. Olearius describes
this apparatus, which he saw in 1633. The first mention of tobacco in
India is in 1605,[687] and it is probable that it was of European
introduction. It was first introduced at Arracan and Pegu, in 1619,
according to the traveller Methold.[688] There are doubts about Java,
because Rumphius, a very accurate observer, who wrote in the second half
of the seventeenth century, says[689] that, according to the tradition
of some old people, tobacco had been employed as a medicine before the
arrival of the Portuguese in 1496, and that only the practice of smoking
it had been communicated by the Europeans. Rumphius adds, it is true,
that the name _tabaco_ or _tambuco_, which is in use in all these
places, is of foreign origin. Sir Stamford Raffles,[690] in his numerous
historical researches on Java, gives, on the other hand, the year 1601
as the date of the introduction of tobacco into Java. The Portuguese had
certainly discovered the coasts of Brazil between 1500 and 1504, but
Vasco di Gama and his successors went to Asia round the Cape, or through
the Red Sea, so that they could hardly have established frequent or
direct communications between America and Java. Nicot had seen the plant
in Portugal in 1560, so that the Portuguese probably introduced it into
Asia in the latter half of the sixteenth century. Thunberg affirms[691]
that the use of tobacco was introduced into Japan by the Portuguese, and
according to early travellers quoted by Tiedemann, this was at the
beginning of the seventeenth century. Lastly, the Chinese have no
original and ancient sign for tobacco; their paintings on china in the
Dresden collection often present, from the year 1700 and never before
that date, details relating to tobacco,[692] and Chinese students are
agreed that Chinese works do not mention the plant before the end of the
sixteenth century.[693] If it be remembered with what rapidity the use
of tobacco has spread wherever it has been introduced, these data about
Asia have an incontestable force.
_C_. The common names of tobacco confirm its American origin. If there
had been any indigenous species in the old world there would be a great
number of different names; but, on the contrary, the Chinese, Japanese,
Javanese, Indian, Persian, etc., names are derived from the American
names, _petum_, or _tabak_, _tabok_, _tamboc_, slightly modified. It is
true that Piddington gives Sanskrit names, _dhumrapatra_ and
_tamrakouta_,[694] but Adolphe Pictet informs me that the first of these
names, which is not in Wilson’s dictionary, means only leaf for smoking,
and appears to be of modern composition; while the second is probably no
older, and seems to be a modern modification of the American names. The
Arabic word _docchan_ simply means smoke.[695]
Lastly, we must inquire into the two so-called Asiatic _Nicotianæ_. The
one, called by Lehmann _Nicotiana chinensis_, came from the Russian
botanist Fischer, who said it was Chinese. Lehmann said he had seen it
in a garden. Now, it is well known how often an erroneous origin is
attributed to plants grown by horticulturists, and besides, from the
description, it seems that it was simply _N. Tabacum_, of which the
seeds had perhaps come from China.[696] The second species is _N.
persica_, Lindley, figured in the _Botanical Register_ (pl. 1592), of
which the seeds had been sent from Ispahan to the Horticultural Society
of London, as those of the best tobacco cultivated in Persia, that of
Schiraz. Lindley did not observe that it corresponded exactly to _N.
alata_, drawn three years before by Link and Otto[697] from a plant in
the gardens at Berlin. The latter was grown from seed sent by Sello from
Southern Brazil. It is certainly a Brazilian species, with a white
elongated corolla, allied to _N. suaveolens_ of New Holland. Thus the
tobacco cultivated sometimes in Persia along with the common species, is
of American origin, as I declared in my _Geographical Botany_ of 1855. I
do not understand how this species was introduced into Persia. It must
have been from seed taken from a garden, or brought by chance from
America, and it is not likely that its cultivation is common in Persia,
for Olivier and Bruguière, and other naturalists who have observed the
tobacco plantations in that country, make no mention of it.
From all these reasons I conclude that no species of tobacco is a native
of Asia. They are all American, except _N. suaveolens_ of New Holland,
and _N. fragrans_ of the Isle of Pines to the south of New Caledonia.
Several _Nicotianæ_, besides _N. tabacum_ and _N. rustica_, have been
cultivated here and there by savages, or as a curiosity by Europeans. It
is strange that so little notice is taken of these attempts, by means of
which very choice tobacco might be obtained. The species with white
flowers would yield probably a light and perfumed tobacco, and as some
smokers seek the strongest tobaccos and the most disagreeable to
non-smokers, I would recommend to their notice _N. angustifolia_ of
Chili, which the natives call _tabaco del diablo_.[698]
+Cinnamon+—_Cinnamonum zeylanicum_, Breyn.
This little tree, belonging to the laurel tribe, of which the bark of
the young branches forms the cinnamon of commerce, grows in great
quantities in the forests of Ceylon. Certain varieties which grow wild
on the continent of India were formerly considered to be so many
distinct species, but Anglo-Indian botanists are agreed in connecting
them with that of Ceylon.[699]
The bark of _C. zeylanicum_, and that of several uncultivated species of
_Cinnamonum_, which produce the _cassia_, or _Chinese cassia_, have been
an important article of commerce from a very early period. Flückiger and
Hanbury[700] have treated of this historical question with so much
learning and thoroughness, that we need only refer to their work,
entitled _Pharmacographia, or History of the Principal Drugs of
Vegetable Origin_. It is important from our point of view to note how
modern the culture is of the cinnamon tree in comparison with the trade
in its product. It was only between 1765 and 1770 that a Ceylon
colonist, named de Koke, aided by Falck, the governor of the island,
made some plantations which were wonderfully successful. They have
diminished in Ceylon in the last few years, but others have been
established in the tropical regions of the old and new worlds. The
species becomes easily naturalized beyond the limits of
cultivation,[701] as birds are fond of the fruit, and drop the seeds in
the forests.
+China Grass+—_Boehmeria nivea_, Hooker and Arnott.
The cultivation of this valuable _Urticacea_ has been introduced into
the south of France and of the United States for about thirty years, but
commerce had previously acquainted us with the great value of its
fibres, more tenacious than hemp and in some cases flexible as silk.
Interesting details on the manner of cultivating the plant and of
extracting its fibres[702] may be found in several books; I shall
confine myself here to defining as clearly as I can its geographical
origin.
To attain this end we must not trust to the vague expressions of most
authors, nor to the labels attached to the specimens in herbaria, since
frequently no distinction has been made between cultivated, naturalized,
or truly wild plants, and the two varieties of _Boehmeria nivea_
(_Urtica nivea_, Linnæus), and _Boehmeria tenacissima_, Gaudichaud, or
_B. candicans_, Hasskarl, have been confounded together; forms which
appear to be varieties of the same species, because transitions between
them have been observed by botanists. There is also a sub-variety, with
leaves green on both sides, cultivated by Americans and by M. de
Malartic in the south of France.
The variety earliest known (_Urtica nivea_, L.), with leaves white on
the under side, is said to grow in China and some neighbouring
countries. Linnæus says it is found on walls in China, which would imply
a plant naturalized on rubbish-heaps from cultivation. But Loureiro[703]
says, “_habitat et abundanter colitur in Cochin-China et China_,” and
according to Bentham,[704] the collector Champion found it in abundance
in the ravines of the island of Hongkong. According to Franchet and
Savatier,[705] it exists in Japan in clearings and hedges (_in
fruticetis umbrosis et sepibus_). Blanco[706] says it is common in the
Philippine Isles. I find no proof that it is wild in Java, Sumatra, and
other islands of the Malay Archipelago. Rumphius[707] knew it only as a
cultivated plant. Roxburgh[708] believed it to be a native of Sumatra,
but Miquel[709] does not confirm this belief. The other varieties have
nowhere been found wild, which supports the theory that they are only
the result of cultivation.
+Hemp+—_Cannabis sativa_, Linnæus.
Hemp is mentioned, in its two forms, male and female, in the most
ancient Chinese works, particularly in the _Shu-King_, written 500
B.C.[710]
It has Sanskrit names, _bhanga_ and _gangika_.[711] The root of these
words, _ang_ or _an_, recurs in all the Indo-European and modern
Semitic languages: _bang_ in Hindu and Persian, _ganga_ in Bengali,[712]
_hanf_ in German, _hemp_ in English, _chanvre_ in French, _kanas_ in
Keltic and modern Breton,[713] _cannabis_ in Greek and Latin, _cannab_
in Arabic.[714]
According to Herodotus (born 484 B.C.), the Scythians used hemp, but in
his time the Greeks were scarcely acquainted with it.[715] Hiero II.,
King of Syracuse, bought the hemp used for the cordage of his vessels in
Gaul, and Lucilius is the earliest Roman writer who speaks of the plant
(100 B.C.). Hebrew books do not mention hemp.[716] It was not used in
the fabrics which enveloped the mummies of ancient Egypt. Even at the
end of the eighteenth century it was only cultivated in Egypt for the
sake of an intoxicating liquid extracted from the plant.[717] The
compilation of Jewish laws known as the Talmud, made under the Roman
dominion, speaks of its textile properties as of a little-known
fact.[718] It seems probable that the Scythians transported this plant
from Central Asia and from Russia when they migrated westward about 1500
B.C., a little before the Trojan war. It may also have been introduced
by the earlier incursions of the Aryans into Thrace and Western Europe;
yet in that case it would have been earlier known in Italy. Hemp has not
been found in the lake-dwellings of Switzerland[719] and Northern
Italy.[720]
The observations on the habitat of _Cannabis sativa_ agree perfectly
with the data furnished by history and philology. I have treated
specially of this subject in a monograph in _Prodromus_, 1869.[721]
The species has been found wild, beyond a doubt, to the south of the
Caspian Sea,[722] in Siberia, near the Irtysch, in the desert of the
Kirghiz, beyond Lake Baikal, in Dahuria (government of Irkutsh). Authors
mention it also throughout Southern and Central Russia, and to the south
of the Caucasus,[723] but its wild nature is here less certain, seeing
that these are populous countries, and that the seeds of the hemp are
easily diffused from gardens. The antiquity of the cultivation of hemp
in China leads me to believe that its area extends further to the east,
although this has not yet been proved by botanists.[724] Boissier
mentions the species as “almost wild in Persia.” I doubt whether it is
indigenous there, since in that case the Greeks and Hebrews would have
known of it at an earlier period.
+White Mulberry+—_Morus alba_, Linnæus.
The mulberry tree, which is most commonly used in Europe for rearing
silkworms, is _Morus alba_. Its very numerous varieties have been
carefully described by Seringe,[725] and more recently by Bureau.[726]
That most widely cultivated in India, _Morus indica_, Linnæus (_Morus
alba_, var. _Indica_, Bureau), is wild in the Punjab and in Sikkim,
according to Brandis, inspector-general of forests in British
India.[727] Two other varieties, _serrata_ and _cuspidata_, are also
said to be wild in different provinces of Northern India.[728] The Abbé
David found a perfectly wild variety in Mongolia, described under the
name of _mongolica_ by Bureau; and Dr. Bretschneider[729] quotes a name
_yen_, from ancient Chinese authors, for the wild mulberry.
It is true he does not say whether this name applies to the white
mulberry, _pe-sang_, of the Chinese plantations.[730] The antiquity of
its culture in China,[731] and in Japan, and the number of different
varieties grown there, lead us to believe that its original area
extended eastward as far as Japan; but the indigenous flora of Southern
China is little known, and the most trustworthy authors do not affirm
that the plant is indigenous in Japan. Franchet and Savatier[732] say
that it is “cultivated from time immemorial, and become wild here and
there.” It is worthy of note also that the white mulberry appears to
thrive especially in mountainous and temperate countries, whence it may
be argued that it was formerly introduced from the north of China into
the plains of the south. It is known that birds are fond of the fruit,
and bear the seeds to great distances and into uncultivated ground, and
this makes it difficult to discover its really original habitat.
This facility of naturalization doubtless explains the presence in
successive epochs of the white mulberry in Western Asia and the south of
Europe. This must have occurred especially after the monks brought the
silkworm to Constantinople under Justinian in the sixth century, and as
the culture of silkworms was gradually propagated westwards. However,
Targioni has proved that only the black mulberry, _M. nigra_, was known
in Sicily and Italy when the manufacture of silk was introduced into
Sicily in 1148, and two centuries later into Tuscany.[733] According to
the same author, the introduction of the white mulberry into Tuscany
dates at the earliest from the year 1340. In like manner the manufacture
of silk may have begun in China, because the silkworm is natural to that
country; but it is very probable that the tree grew also in the north of
India, where so many travellers have found it wild. In Persia, Armenia,
and Asia Minor, I am inclined to believe that it was naturalized at a
very early epoch, rather than to share Grisebach’s opinion that it is
indigenous in the basin of the Caspian Sea. Boissier does not give it
as wild in that region.[734] Buhse[735] found it in Persia, near Erivan
and Bashnaruschin, and he adds, “naturalized in abundance in Ghilan and
Masenderan.” Ledebour,[736] in his Russian flora, mentions numerous
localities round the Caucasus, but he does not specify whether the
species is wild or naturalized. In the Crimea, Greece, and Italy, it
exists only in a cultivated state.[737] A variety, _tatarica_, often
cultivated in the south of Russia, has become naturalized near the
Volga.[738]
If the white mulberry did not originally exist in Persia and in the
neighbourhood of the Caspian Sea, it must have penetrated there a long
while ago. I may quote in proof of this the name _tut_, _tutti_, _tuta_,
which is Persian, Arabic, Turkish, and Tartar. There is a Sanskrit name,
_tula_,[739] which must be connected with the same root as the Persian
name; but no Hebrew name is known, which is a confirmation of the theory
of a successive extension towards the west of Asia.
I refer those of my readers who may desire more detailed information
about the introduction of the mulberry and of silkworms to the able
works of Targioni and Ritter, to which I have already referred. Recent
discoveries made by various botanists have permitted me to add more
precise data than those of Ritter on the question of origin, and if
there are some apparent contradictions in our opinions on other points,
it is because the famous geographer has considered a number of varieties
as so many different species, whereas botanists, after a careful
examination, have classed them together.
+Black Mulberry+—_Morus nigra_, Linnæus.
This tree is more valued for its fruit than for its leaves, and on that
account I should have included it in the list of fruit trees; but its
history can hardly be separated from that of the white mulberry.
Moreover, its leaves are employed in many countries for the feeding of
silkworms, although the silk produced is of inferior quality.
The black mulberry is distinguished from the white by several characters
independently of the black colour of the fruit, which occurs also in a
few varieties of the _M. alba_.[740] It has not a great number of
varieties like the latter, which argues a less ancient and a less
general cultivation and a narrower primitive area.
Greek and Latin authors, even the poets, have mentioned _Morus nigra_,
which they compare to _Ficus sycomorus_, and which they even confounded
originally with this Egyptian tree.
Commentators for the last two centuries have quoted a number of passages
which leave no doubt on this head, but which are devoid of interest in
themselves.[741] They furnish no proof touching the origin of the
species, which is presumably Persian, unless we are to take seriously
the fable of Pyramus and Thisbe, of which the scene was in Babylonia,
according to Ovid.
Botanists have not yet furnished any certain proof that this species is
indigenous in Persia. Boissier, who is the most learned in the floras of
the East, contents himself with quoting Hohenacker as the discoverer of
_M. nigra_ in the forests of Lenkoran, on the south coast of the Caspian
Sea, and he adds, “probably wild in the north of Persia near the Caspian
Sea.”[742] Ledebour, in his Russian flora, had previously indicated, on
the authority of different travellers, the Crimea and the provinces
south of the Caucasus;[743] but Steven denies the existence of the
species in the Crimea except in a cultivated state.[744] Tchihatcheff
and Koch found the black mulberry in high wild districts of Armenia. It
is very probable that in the region to the south of the Caucasus and of
the Caspian Sea _Morus nigra_ is wild and indigenous rather than
naturalized. What leads me to this belief is (1) that it is not known,
even in a cultivated state, in India, China, or Japan; (2) that it has
no Sanskrit name; (3) that it was so early introduced into Greece, a
country which had intercourse with Armenia at an early period.[745]
_Morus nigra_ spread so little to the south of Persia, that no certain
Hebrew name is known for it, nor even a Persian name distinct from that
of _Morus alba_. It was widely cultivated in Italy until the superiority
of the white mulberry for the rearing of silkworms was recognized. In
Greece the black mulberry is still the most cultivated.[746] It has
become naturalized here and there in these countries and in Spain.[747]
+American Aloe+—_Agave Americana_, Linnæus.
This ligneous plant, of the order of _Amaryllidaceæ_, has been
cultivated from time immemorial in Mexico under the names _maguey_ or
_metl_, in order to extract from it, at the moment when the flower stem
is developed, the wine known as _pulque_. Humboldt has given a full
description of this culture,[748] and he tells us elsewhere[749] that
the species grows in the whole of South America as far as five thousand
feet of altitude. It is mentioned[750] in Jamaica, Antigua, Dominica,
and Cuba, but it must be observed that it multiplies easily by suckers,
and that it is often planted far from dwellings to form fences or to
extract from it the fibre known as _pite_, and this makes it difficult
to ascertain its original habitat. Transported long since into the
countries which border the Mediterranean, it occurs there with every
appearance of an indigenous species, although there is no doubt as to
its origin.[751] Probably, to judge from the various uses made of it in
Mexico before the arrival of the Europeans, it came originally from
thence.
+Sugar-Cane+—_Saccharum officinarum_, Linnæus.
The origin of the sugar-cane, of its cultivation, and of the manufacture
of sugar, are the subject of a very remarkable work by the geographer,
Karl Ritter.[752] I need not follow his purely agricultural and
economical details; but for that which interests us particularly, the
primitive habitat of the species, he is the best guide, and the facts
observed during the last forty years for the most part support or
confirm his opinions.
The sugar-cane is cultivated at the present day in all the warm regions
of the globe, but a number of historical facts testify that it was first
grown in Southern Asia, whence it spread into Africa, and later into
America. The question is, therefore, to discover in what districts of
the continent, or in which of the southern islands of Asia, the plant
exists, or existed at the time it was first employed.
Ritter has followed the best methods of arriving at a solution. He notes
first that all the species known in a wild state, and undoubtedly
belonging to the genus _Saccharum_, grow in India, except one in
Egypt.[753] Five species have since been described, growing in Java, New
Guinea, Timor, and the Philippine Isles.[754] The probabilities are all
in favour of an Asiatic origin, to judge from the data furnished by
geographical botany.
Unfortunately no botanist had discovered at the time when Ritter wrote,
or has since discovered, _Saccharum officinarum_ wild in India, in the
adjacent countries or in the archipelago to the south of Asia. All
Anglo-Indian authors, Roxburgh, Wallich, Royle, etc., and more recently
Aitchison,[755] only mention the plant as a cultivated one. Roxburgh,
who was so long a collector in India, says expressly, “where wild I do
not know.” The family of the _Gramineæ_ has not yet appeared in Sir
Joseph Hooker’s flora. For the island of Ceylon, Thwaites does not even
mention the cultivated plant.[756] Rumphius, who has carefully described
its cultivation in the Dutch colonies, says nothing about the home of
the species. Miquel, Hasskarl, and Blanco mention no wild specimen in
Sumatra, Java, or the Philippine Isles. Crawfurd tried to discover it,
but failed to do so.[757] At the time of Cook’s voyage Forster found the
sugar-cane only as a cultivated plant in the small islands of the
Pacific.[758] The natives of New Caledonia cultivate a number of
varieties of the sugar-cane, and use it constantly, sucking the syrup
from the cane; but Vieillard[759] takes care to say, “From the fact that
isolated plants of _Saccharum officinarum_ are often found in the middle
of the bush and even on the mountains, it would be wrong to conclude
that the plant is indigenous; for these specimens, poor and weak, only
mark the site of old plantations, or are sprung from fragments of cane
left by the natives, who seldom travel without a piece of cane in the
hand.” In 1861, Bentham, who had access to the rich herbarium of Kew,
says, in his _Flora of Hongkong_, “We have no authentic and certain
proof of a locality where the common sugar-cane is wild.”
I do not know, however, why Ritter and every one else has neglected an
assertion of Loureiro, in his _Flora of Cochin-China_,[760] “Habitat, et
colitur abundantissime in omnibus provinciis regni Cochin-Chinensis:
simul in aliquibus imperii sinensis, sed minori copia.” The word
_habitat_, separated by a comma from the rest, is a distinct assertion.
Loureiro could not have been mistaken about the _Saccharum officinarum_,
which he saw cultivated all about him, and of which he enumerates the
principal varieties. He must have seen plants wild, at least in
appearance. They may have spread from some neighbouring plantation, but
I know nothing which makes it unlikely that the plant should be
indigenous in this warm moist district of the continent of Asia.
Forskal[761] mentions the species as wild in the mountains of Arabia,
under a name which he believes to be Indian. If it came from Arabia, it
would have spread into Egypt long ago, and the Hebrews would have known
it.
Roxburgh had received in the botanical gardens of Calcutta in 1796, and
had introduced into the plantations in Bengal, a _Saccharum_ to which he
gave the name of _S. sinense_, and of which he published an illustration
in his great work _Plantæ Coromandelianæ_, vol. iii. pl. 232. It is
perhaps only a form of _S. officinarum_, and moreover, as it is only
known in a cultivated state, it tells nothing about the primitive
country either of this or of any other variety.
A few botanists have asserted that the sugar-cane flowers more often in
Asia than in America or Africa, and even that it produces seed[762] on
the banks of the Ganges, which they regard as a proof that it is
indigenous. Macfadyen says so without giving any proof. It was an
assertion made to him in Jamaica by some traveller; but Sir W. Hooker
adds in a note, “Dr. Roxburgh, in spite of his long residence on the
banks of the Ganges, has never seen the seeds of the sugar-cane.” It
rarely flowers, and still more rarely bears fruit, as is commonly the
case with plants propagated by buds or suckers, and if any variety of
sugar-cane were disposed to seed, it would probably be less productive
of sugar and would soon be abandoned. Rumphius, a better observer than
many modern botanists, has given a good description of the cultivated
cane in the Dutch colonies, and makes an interesting remark.[763] “It
never produces flowers or fruit unless it has remained several years in
a stony place.” Neither he, nor any one else to my knowledge, has
described or drawn the seed. The flower, on the contrary, has often been
figured, and I have a fine specimen from Martinique.[764] Schacht is the
only person who has given a good analysis of the flower, including the
pistil; he had not seen the seed ripe.[765] De Tussac,[766] who gives a
poor analysis, speaks of the seed, but he only saw it young in the
ovary.
In default of precise information as to the native country of the
species, accessory means, linguistic and historical, of proving an
Asiatic origin, are of some interest. Ritter gives them carefully; I
will content myself with an epitome. The Sanskrit name of the sugar-cane
was _ikshu_, _ikshura_, or _ikshava_, but the sugar was called
_sarkara_, or _sakkara_, and all its names in our European languages of
Aryan origin, beginning with the ancient ones—Greek, for example—are
clearly derived from this. This is an indication of Asiatic origin, and
that the produce of the cane was of ancient use in the southern regions
of Asia with which the ancient Sanskrit-speaking nation may have had
commercial dealings. The two Sanskrit words have remained in Bengali
under the forms _ik_ and _akh_.[767] But in other languages beyond the
Indus, we find a singular variety of names, at least when they are not
akin to that of the Aryans; for instance: _panchadara_ in Telinga,
_kyam_ in Burmese, _mia_ in the dialect of Cochin-China, _kan_ and
_tche_, or _tsche_, in Chinese; and further south, among the Malays,
_tubu_ or _tabu_ for the plant, and _gula_ for the product. This
diversity proves the great antiquity of its cultivation in those
regions of Asia in which botanical indications point out the origin of
the species.
The epoch of its introduction into different countries agrees with the
idea that its origin was in India, Cochin-China, or the Malay
Archipelago.
The Chinese were not acquainted with the sugar-cane at a very remote
period, and they received it from the West. Ritter contradicts those
authors who speak of a very ancient cultivation, and I find most
positive confirmation of his opinion in Dr. Bretschneider’s pamphlet,
drawn up at Pekin with the aid of all the resources of Chinese
literature.[768] “I have not been able to discover,” he says, “any
allusion to the sugar-cane in the most ancient Chinese books (the five
classics).” It appears to have been mentioned for the first time by the
authors of the second century before Christ. The first description of it
appears in the _Nan-fang-tsao-mu-chuang_, in the fourth century: “The
_chê chê, kan-chê_ (_kan_, sweet, _chê_, bamboo) grows,” it says, “in
Cochin-China. It is several inches in circumference, and resembles the
bamboo. The stem, broken into pieces, is eatable and very sweet. The sap
which is drawn from it is dried in the sun. After a few days it becomes
sugar (here a compound Chinese character), which melts in the mouth....
In the year 286 (of our era) the kingdom of Funan (in India, beyond the
Ganges) sent sugar as a tribute.” According to the _Pent-Sao_, an
emperor who reigned from 627 to 650 A.D., sent a man into the Indian
province of Behar to learn how to manufacture sugar.
There is nothing said in these works of the plant growing wild in China;
on the contrary, the origin in Cochin-China, indicated by Loureiro,
finds an unexpected confirmation. It seems to me most probable that its
primitive range extended from Bengal to Cochin-China. It may have
included the Sunda Isles and the Moluccas, whose climate is very
similar; but there are quite as many reasons for believing that it was
early introduced into these from Cochin-China or the Malay peninsula.
The propagation of the sugar-cane from India westward is well known. The
Greco-Roman world had a vague idea of the reed (_calamus_) which the
Indians delighted to chew, and from which they obtained sugar.[769] On
the other hand, the Hebrew writings do not mention sugar;[770] whence we
may infer that the cultivation of the sugar-cane did not exist west of
the Indus at the time of the Jewish captivity at Babylon. The Arabs in
the Middle Ages introduced it into Egypt, Sicily, and the south of
Spain,[771] where it flourished until the abundance of sugar in the
colonies caused it to be abandoned. Don Henriquez transported the
sugar-cane from Sicily to Madeira, whence it was taken to the Canaries
in 1503.[772] Hence it was introduced into Brazil in the beginning of
the sixteenth century.[773] It was taken to St. Domingo about 1520, and
shortly afterwards to Mexico;[774] to Guadeloupe in 1644, to Martinique
about 1650, to Bourbon when the colony was founded.[775] The variety
known as _Otahiti_, which is not, however, wild in that island, and
which is also called _Bourbon_, was introduced into the French and
English colonies at the end of the last and the beginning of the present
century.[776]
The processes of cultivation and preparation of the sugar are described
in a number of works, among which the following may be recommended: de
Tussac, _Flore des Antilles_, 3 vols., Paris; vol. i. pp. 151-182; and
Macfadyen, in Hooker’s _Botanical Miscellany_, 1830, vol. i. pp.
103-116.