Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 82.djvu/42

38 one, to which Körnicke had already given the varietal name dicoccoides. No intermediate form between this wild plant and those cultivated in Palestine has been found. Thus everything tends to show that wheat is indigenous to Mt. Hermon. Somewhat later, Mr. Aaronsohn discovered Secale montanum, the wild rye, in Antiliban. For philological reasons it had formerly been thought that this was indigenous to Europe. From now on we must bear in mind that this cereal also has its center of distribution somewhere in Asia Minor.

That wheat was indigenous to Palestine was to be confirmed somewhat later by the same explorer. In 1908, while on a mission for the Turkish government, Mr. Aaronsohn discovered wild barley, already known at other stations, in the Moab country on the left bank of the Dead Sea, above El Mazra-a; towards Wady Wahleh monoliths occur in large numbers and round about are many chipped flint implements. The Jewish savant could not keep his fancy from roaming. He went back in spirit to that far-away epoch, more ancient than all written history, when urged by hunger while crossing these steppes, primitive man first tried these savory grains and discovered cereals.

A little later in this same region of the Dead Sea, while on a second expedition, Mr. Aaronsohn found emmer in great abundance, towards Tel Nimrim, in the valley of the Jordan, at Ain-Hummar, on the plateau of Es-Salt.

When one considers the fact that the grains of wild wheat are not inferior either in weight or size to those of the best cultivated species it would be impossible not to arrive at the conclusion that primitive man did not create cereals, he found them.

One can imagine the nomads of the hills and mountains of Palestine, giving these precious seeds to the inhabitants of Mesopotamia, who were better situated than themselves for the testing of crops and who succeeded with them in their rich alluvial plains. Glancing at the Assyrian bas-relief, we are struck by the great importance given by this people in their ceremonies to the mystery of the seed which contains within itself the essence of life and, in consequence, the intense interest which they manifested in all agriculture.

One of the most striking things in economic history is the rapidity with which a new food or useful plant spreads even to little-civilized countries. Schweinfurth, in his famous voyages to the heart of Africa, found tobacco grown by the most primitive peoples. Hooker, exploring the high valleys of the Himalayas, found the potato cultivated by the Lepchas and the people of Nepaul, scarcely half a century after its introduction into Europe as an important cultivated plant.

I have told in detail of the important discovery of Aaronsohn. Let us see now what practical and scientific results can come from it.