Origin of Cultivated Plants

Where familiar crops first grew becomes a problem of evidence in Alphonse de Candolle's study of cultivated plants. He seeks the wild homes of species raised in fields, orchards and kitchen gardens, then considers how long people have grown them and how cultivation spread. The opening explains why plant varieties, uncertain records and repeated errors make these origins difficult to establish. Chapters group plants by the parts people use, from roots and leaves to fruits and seeds.

The discussion of olives shows his method at work. Botanical reports sit beside ancient writings, regional names and accounts of farming as he weighs possible origins around the Mediterranean. He distinguishes wild trees from cultivated ones and uses language as another clue to their history. Readers interested in botany or food history can follow a historical scientific argument built from many kinds of evidence, with the author's varying degrees of certainty made explicit.