Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 82.djvu/45

Rh But let us remember the important results of Aaronsohn's discoveries: Primitive man, even he who chipped the flints abounding about the menhirs of the Moab country, as he sought his food in the steppes, found fields of cereals waving in the breeze just as the graceful heads of Stipa sway in the breeze of our fields of our canton of Valais. The wild wheat, Triticum dicoccoides, with its large grains, must have immediately caught the attention of a primitive people, interested in nature as are all peoples whose eyes have not been closed and whose sense of observation has not been dulled by too much book learning.

Is it not a singular coincidence that this young Jew, Mr. Aaronsohn, should rediscover in Judea the origin of our cereals, of our civilization? There is material in that for a philosopher or a historian to write a moving page. I have the pleasure of counting Mr. Aaronsohn among my botanical friends, and I may say to you that rarely has an important discovery been made by a more genial and charming man. Those who say that man is master of his fate may well cite him as an example. But let us rather listen to him:

26 Jan., 1911

Professeur à la Faculté des Sciences, Genève.

Dear Sir: I have just received your kind letter of the 3d inst., which recalled to me our agreeable and interesting conversations during the Congress at Brussels. I am very much flattered to learn of the subject that you have chosen for the annual meeting of the Société des Arts.

I shall be glad to send you the "corps du délit" which you wish; I shall also take the liberty of sending some photographs taken last June which will give you an idea of the appearance of the fields where my Triticum flourishes. You will doubtless be glad to learn that we have this year sown more than an acre of Triticum dicoccoides. We intend to study the value of this plant for forage, etc. I had the good fortune to discover in Upper Galilee this year a spontaneous hybrid of Triticum and Ægilops, and there also exists already a wheat with a non-articulate rachis, arising from a cross of my Triticum and a cultivated wheat. Thus you see that we are rapidly advancing towards the realization of our dream. In the different experimental fields where my Triticum has been grown it has resisted rust very well, and this for three or four successive years while many check varieties succumbed to this disease. In these times of "unit characters" it should not be difficult to fix this special property of disease-resistance, and you will at once realize the practical significance and the economic value of this character.

As for the problem of the origin of civilization or the origin of wheat culture, I have resolved upon a new method of attack. I had first taken up the study of adventitious plants accompanying our cereals. Thus the discovery of Lolium temulentum, quite spontaneous in a given region, far from all cultivation, would be a sufficient reason, in my opinion, for inaugurating a search in this neighborhood for the cradle of our cereals. Now, I am on another trail.