g up with a fire-hardened stake
various roots. Similar facts with respect to the collection of seeds of
wild grasses in other parts of the world could be given.[525]

Accustomed as we are to our excellent vegetables and luscious fruits, we
can hardly persuade ourselves that the stringy roots of the wild carrot and
parsnip, or the little shoots of the wild asparagus, or crabs, sloes, &c.,
should ever have been valued; yet, from what we know of the habits of
Australian and South African savages, we need feel no doubt on this head.
The inhabitants of Switzerland during the Stone-period largely collected
wild crabs, sloes, bullaces, hips of roses, elderberries, beech-mast, and
other wild berries and fruit.[526] Jemmy Button, a Fuegian on board the
_Beagle_, remarked to me that the poor and acid black-currants of Tierra
del Fuego were too sweet for his taste.

The savage inhabitants of each land, having found out by many and hard
trials what plants were useful, or could be rendered useful by various
cooking processes, would after a time take the first step in cultivation by
planting them near their usual abodes. Livingstone[527] states that the
savage Batokas sometimes left wild fruit-trees standing in their gardens,
and occasionally even planted them, "a practice seen nowhere else amongst
the natives." But Du Chaillu saw a palm and some other wild fruit-trees
which had been planted; and these trees were considered private property.
The next step in cultivation, and this would require but little
forethought, would be to sow {310} the seeds of useful plants; and as the
soil near the hovels of the natives[528] would often be in some degree
manured, improved varieties would sooner or later arise. Or a wild and
unusually good variety of a native plant might attract the attention of
some wise old savage; and he would transplant it, or sow its seed. That
superior varieties of wild fruit-trees occasionally are found is certain,
as in the case of the American species of hawthorns, plums, cherries,
grapes, and hickories, specified by Professor Asa Gray.[529] Downing also
refers to certain wild varieties of the hickory, as being "of much larger
size and finer flavour than the common species." I have referred to
American fruit-trees, because we are not in this case troubled with doubts
whether or not the varieties are seedlings which have escaped from
cultivation. Transplanting any superior variety, or sowing its seeds,
hardly implies