GENERAL TABLE OF SPECIES, WITH THEIR ORIGIN AND THE EPOCH OF THEIR EARLIEST CULTIVATION.

The following table includes a few species of which a detailed account has not been given, because their origin is well known, and they are of little importance.

Explanation of the signs used in the table: (1) annual, (2) biennial, perennial perennial, small shrub small shrub, small shrub shrub, small tree small tree, small shrub tree. The letters indicate the certain or probable date of earliest cultivation. For the species of the old world: A, a species cultivated for more than four thousand years (according to ancient historians, the monuments of ancient Egypt, Chinese works, and botanical and philological indications); B, cultivated for more than two thousand years (indicated in Theophrastus, found among lacustrine remains, or presenting various signs, such as possessing Hebrew or Sanskrit names); C, cultivated for less than two thousand years (mentioned by Dioscorides and not by Theophrastus, seen in the frescoes at Pompeii, introduced at a known date, etc.). For American species: D, cultivation very ancient in America (from its wide area and number of varieties); E, species cultivated before the discovery of America, without showing signs of a great antiquity of culture; F, species only cultivated since the discovery of America.