Show how the useful plants came to mankind 0 by T E STEWARD service the radish radish has been cultivated TUB froia the very earliest historic times and centuries ago it attained so wide a distribution that it has been necessary to search through the wold for the spots where it grows wild to determine whence it came and how it found its way into the notable corn pany of the plant servants of man kind its ancient cultivation in china japan and in europe from the earll est days has been established with entire authenticity furthermore the radish Is a willing grower that t spreads from the garden plots where man intends it to grow and makes its way into near by fields especially tf the region Is particularly friendly to its existence this might give the impression that it grew wild in many places where it was by no means an original inhabitant herodotus tells of radishes eaten ay the builders of the pyramid of choops and there are two drawings on the temples of karnak of which one at least Is undoubtedly a radish from varying bits of evidence says the scientist de Can dolle we guth er first that the species spreads easily from cultivation in the west of ala and the south of europe while it does not appear with in the flora of eastern asia and sec andly that in the regions south of the caucasus it Is found without any sign of culture so that we are led to suppose that the plant Is wild there for these two reasons it ap pears to have come from western asia between palestine anatolia and the caucasus perhaps also from greece its cultivation spreading eastward and westward froni a very early period the fact remains that the radish has been under cultivation in scores of regions for so long a ceriol that widely differing names are in ue for it the evidence of the radish s origin Is not unlike that of the beans it has been in use tor untold centuries and has spread throughout the world a useful and treasured plant friend that it grows most naturally in the region from which the modern white man Is said to have come and that in his migrations lie would natural ly have carried it with him and given its seeds to other races the chinese japanese and indians jn trade seems wholly logical the radish may be added to the colony of ancient and honorable pioneers of cabbage AFTER examining a long series of plants that originated in warm climates in asia or the ancient coun tries of the mesopotamian region it Is refreshing to come to one that Is a native of northwestern europe and cabbage seems properly enough to be a native of the shores of the north sea near to the regions with which sauerkraut and the general use of cab bage as a food plant seems to be most naturally associated cabbage has been found wild on the island of hel gol ind in denmark the islands of the english channel and in southern eng land and ireland with t e possible exception of the onion which may have been wild there in remote prehistoric times cabbage is the first food plant native to this district that has been considered in the present series botanical investigations that are accepted as authentic place this plant aho along the shores of the mediterranean as an indigenous species especially near ace and genoa in the wild state it haunts the seacoast just as we found the potato to do in chile and peru 0 o trace of cabbage grow ing wild has come out of the eat ea t where so amny food plants originated it la much grown in all civilized of the globe suitable to its culture but has been introduced except in the places already described use of cabbage as a food Is extreme ly ancient balence deduces from alie various names given it that it was in use as a food in western wes tern europe prior to the invasion of the aryans supposed progenitors of most of lie pres white race it probably was a stone age food in europe either as a cultivated vegetable or as found in the wild state and gathered just as we today gather many wild food ber rles and nuts particularly another indication that cabbage Is european lies in the fact that it Is in europe where most of the new varieties of this plant have been developed three varieties were mentioned by the greek writer theo ph rastus twice that number by pliny while in the middle f the last cen tury de Can dolle enumerated thirty well established kinds of cabbage in europe investigators who have tried to trace the origin of plants by studying their names have brought to light the bract that in the ancient indo germanic tongue the word ka meant cabbage spelled differently a word of similar pronunciation caramba ta a spanish expression of disgust it may have meant old cabbage head in an dent times a meaning which had disappeared from the ejaculation as it la used today 0 1918 Mew paper onion |