pete wrote:
>
> I think that the first human to take a bite of a new herb,
> might have employed a safety philosophy
> which was more complicated than
> knowing "exactly which plant is which",
> especially if they intended to continue to be
> the first human to take bites of new herbs.
>

Bryson touches on it in his latest book about homes, the unknown process
where relatively benign plants, but useless as food crops, such as
members of the grass family, became maize (what people in the US call
corn) and wheat.

What's not only unkown, but amazing is the process where poisons plants such
as the ancestors of tomatos, eggplant and potatoes became not only safe
to eat, but food crops.

Geoff.

--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, N3OWJ/4X1GM/KBUH7245/KBUW5379
To put it in terms everyone understands, the US debt is over 150 Facebooks.