in number, there are the plants introduced, at a relatively late date, from America. Of the first group the most important are the cereals barley and wheat, and the olive and the vine. These four have been known in the area from the earliest times, and they still form the basis of the diet of Mediterranean peoples. Bread, olive oil to replace the butter used by pastoral peoples, wine as a beverage, with fresh grapes and the dried forms of raisins and currants, these early made life possible in the Mediterranean area. Barley is older than wheat, and is more productive but less valuable. It is now largely grown in the basin of the Mediterranean as a food for horses, instead of oats which, like rye, is a cereal not well suited to the Mediterranean climate. As a bread plant it was early replaced in the Mediterranean by wheat, but it is still used to make bread in some other parts of Europe, _e. g._ in Scandinavia, and is also of importance outside the Mediterranean as the origin of fermented beverages. Wheat is the most valuable bread plant which exists, both on account of its proteid content and on account of its digestibility. It demands a warm dry period for ripening, with much sunshine, and is well adapted to Mediterranean conditions. Here it is sown in the autumn, to enable it to take advantage of the "early and the latter rain," _i. e._ the autumn and spring rains, and ripens early before the excessive drought of summer sets in. Like barley it has always been associated with plough culture, the animal used being the ox. According to most authorities plough culture originated in Mesopotamia. The vine and olive are apparently both indigenous to the Mediterranean, and both are well adapted to withstand drought. In regard to the vine there are several interesting points. To the traveller from the north it is most familiar in France or Germany, where it is grown on sunny slopes, usually terraced to prevent stagnant water from lying. In the Mediterranean, on the other hand, it is planted in hollows, or low-lying ground, which permits of the collection of water, for it will receive no summer rain. The vintage is more secure than further north, and the resistance to the attacks of parasites is greater, yet, curiously enough, the Mediterranean countries do not produce the finest wines. This seems to be partly because the climate does not permit of the long storage necessary for maturing to take place. The cool cellars, so important in the wine industry further north, are here absent. To the four plants which we have mentioned we must add such forms as the fig, which if not indigenous was of very early introduction; garlic, greatly valued as a flavouring matter; various kinds of pulse; sesame; millet, once widely grown though no longer important, and flax, known from remote antiquity.