Markandeyapurana 49.64

49.64

punastāsu praṇaṣṭāsu vibhrāntāstāḥ punaḥ prajāḥ /
brahmāṇaṃ śaraṇaṃ jagmuḥ kṣudhārtāḥ parameṣṭhinam //

And then by their union with the earth plants came into existence, of fourteen kinds, both those which grow on uncultivated soil, and those which grow unsown, both cultivated and wild. And trees and shrubs bearing flowers and fruit in their seasons were produced. This manifestation of vegetation appeared first in the Tretā age. On that vegetation the people subsist in the Tretā age, O Muni. And then lapsing into novel passion and covetousness those people next took possession of rivers and fields, mountains, and trees, shrubs and plants in their own right even according to might. Through that their sin those plants perished before their very eyes, and the earth then devoured those plants at once, O most wise brāhman,[45] Moreover when that vegetation had perished, those people fell into still further confusion.

Suffering from hunger, they resorted to Brahmā, the most high, as their preserver. And he, the mighty lord, knowing full well then that the earth had swallowed it up,[46] milked her treating mount Meru as her calf.[47] This earth-cow was then milked by him, the cereals came into existence on the face of the earth, the seeds, the cultivated and wild plants besides, which are annuals,[48] known as comprising seventeen classes according to tradition. The various kinds of both rice and barley, wheat, aṇu grain,[49] sesamum, priyaṅgu,[50] udāra,[51] koradūṣa,[52] and cīnaka,[53] māṣa,[54] green gram,[55] and masūra,[56] the finest pulse,[57] and kulatthaka,[58] āḍhaka pulse,[59] and chick-pea[60] and hemp[61] are known as the seventeen classes. These are the olden kinds of cultivated plants.