Origin of Cultivated Plants / The International Scientific Series Volume XLVIII

by Alphonse de Candolle

CHAPTER I.

GENERAL TABLE OF SPECIES, WITH THEIR ORIGIN AND THE EPOCH OF THEIR EARLIEST CULTIVATION.

The following table includes a few species of which a detailed account has not been given, because their origin is well known, and they are of little importance.

Explanation of the signs used in the table: (1) annual, (2) biennial,

perennial,

small shrub,

shrub,

small tree,

tree. The letters indicate the certain or probable date of earliest cultivation. For the species of the old world: A, a species cultivated for more than four thousand years (according to ancient historians, the monuments of ancient Egypt, Chinese works, and botanical and philological indications); B, cultivated for more than two thousand years (indicated in Theophrastus, found among lacustrine remains, or presenting various signs, such as possessing Hebrew or Sanskrit names); C, cultivated for less than two thousand years (mentioned by Dioscorides and not by Theophrastus, seen in the frescoes at Pompeii, introduced at a known date, etc.). For American species: D, cultivation very ancient in America (from its wide area and number of varieties); E, species cultivated before the discovery of America, without showing signs of a great antiquity of culture; F, species only cultivated since the discovery of America.