The future of the date palm in India (Phœnix dactylifera) / by E. Bonavia.

  • Emanuel Bonavia
Date:
1885
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The future of the date palm in India (Phœnix dactylifera) / by E. Bonavia. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    beginning of time, it is not likely that any cultivated plants had existed ; (2nd) if so, all present cultivated plants must have descended, in the course of ages, from some wild similar kinds ; (3rd) that descent could not have occurred except by either seed-buds, or root or stem - buds. But as we know that seed - buds produce usually many varieties, while root or stem-buds usually do not, it is more probable that, in cases of cultivated plants, which i^ow exist in many varieties, the descent has been through the agency of seeds ; (4th) that when man first appeared on this earth, or, to speak more accurately, when he began to develop into something different from the generality of the lower animals, a source of intelli- gent selection began to appear in nature. That intelli- gence itself, accumulating strength and a variety of powers by natural selection, became the means of exercising further selection in the things which sur- rounded it, and which, from motives of taste and self- preservation, most interested it. This action and re- action (that is, of intelligence on surroundings, and surroundings on intelligence) went on, until it reached that stage which, by gradually preserving the good, and iveeding out\h(t bad, led, through inconceivable time, to our present condition; viz., that of possessing a large number of useful plants and animals. Without them, one can hardly conceive man to be what civilization is making him. Somehow tannin, acids, and sugar have played a very important part in the changes which have occur- red in fruits. That is, these ingredients, by their action on his palate, must have influenced man’s selection of those kinds which were sweet or agreeably acid, and
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