Failing archæological proofs, European languages show an early knowledge of rye in German, Keltic, and Slavonic countries. The principal names, according to Adolphe Pictet,[1868] belong to the peoples of the north of Europe: Anglo-Saxon, _ryge_, _rig_; Scandinavian, _rûgr_; Old High German, _roggo_; Ancient Slav, _ruji_, _roji_; Polish, _rez_; Illyrian, _raz_, etc. The origin of this name must date, he says, from an epoch previous to the separation of the Teutons from the Lithuano-Slavs. The word _secale_ of the Latins recurs in a similar form among the Bretons, _segal_, and the Basques, _cekela_, _zekhalea_; but it is not known whether the Latins borrowed it from the Gauls and Iberians, or whether, conversely, the latter took the name from the Romans. This second hypothesis appears to be the more probable of the two, since the Cisalpine Gauls of Pliny’s time had quite a different name. I also find mentioned a Tartar name, _aresch_,[1869] and an Ossete name, _syl_, _sil_,[1870] which points to an ancient cultivation to the east of Europe. Thus historical and philological data show that the species probably had its origin in the countries north of the Danube, and that its cultivation is hardly earlier than the Christian era in the Roman empire, but perhaps more ancient in Russia and Tartary. The indication of wild rye given by several authors should scarcely ever be accepted, for it has often happened that _Secale cereale_ has been confounded with perennial species, or with others of which the ear is easily broken, which modern botanists have rightly distinguished.[1871] Many mistakes which thus arose have been cleared up by an examination of original specimens. Others may be suspected. Thus I do not know what to think of the assertions of L. Ross, who said he had found rye growing wild in several parts of Anatolia,[1872] and of the Russian traveller Ssaewerzoff, who said he saw it in Turkestan.[1873] The latter fact is probable enough, but it is not said that any botanist verified the species. Kunth[1874] had previously mentioned it in “the desert between the Black Sea and the Caspian,” but he does not say on what authority of traveller or of specimens. Boissier’s herbarium has shown me no wild _Secale cereale_, but it has persuaded me that another species of rye might easily be mistaken for this one, and that assertions require to be carefully verified.