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hours becomes vinegar; that an oil may be obtained from the nut, which is not inferior to sweet almond oil, and which is used almost exclusively in India; and that the shell is formed into cups and various other small articles.

Almost all that has been said of the cocoa tree might be repeated of the date tree, making an allowance for the specific differences of the two: and with respect to the palms in general, Humboldt says it would not be easy to enumerate the various advantages derived from them. "They "afford wine, vinegar, oil, farinaceous food, "and sugar; timber also, and ropes, and mats, "and paper; and," he adds, that "no trees are "so abundant in fruit, even without the aid of "cultivation; and that the Franciscan monks, "who live in the vicinity of palm plantations,

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near the banks of the Orinoco, observe that "the native Indians give evidence of a fruitful palm year, by the corresponding improvement "in in their health and appearance". "."

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I shall conclude this part of the subject with a translation from the Flora Atlantica of Desfontaines, for the introduction of which no apology, I trust, is necessary. In describing the natural scenery of groves of palm, the author concludes with the following beautiful passage. "These palm-groves, being impervious to the sun's rays, afford a hospitable shade, both to man and Humboldt, Distrib. Géogr. Plant. p. 216-240.

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"other animals, in a region which would other"wise be intolerable from the heat. And under "this natural shelter, the orange, the lemon, the

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pomegranate, the olive, the almond, and the "vine grow in wild luxuriance; producing, notwithstanding they are so shaded, the most de"licious fruit. And here, while the eyes are fed "with the endless variety of flowers which deck "these sylvan scenes, the ears are at the same "time ravished with the melodious notes of nu

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merous birds, which are attracted to these groves by the shade, and the cool springs, and "the food which they there find s.'

SECT. III.

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Vegetables as a Source of Food.

It appears from various statements of authority, that the species of vegetables already known amount to about sixty thousand: though there is reason to believe the actual number is above a hundred thousand": and, from the general analogy of nature, we may fairly conclude

s "Palmeta radiis solis impervia, umbram in regione calidissima "hospitalem incolis, viatoribus, æque ac animantibus ministrant. "Eorum denso sub tegmine, absque ordine crescunt aurantia, "limones, punicæ, oleæ, amygdali, vites, quæ cursu geniculato

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sæpe truncos palmarum scandunt. Hæ omnes fructus suavis"simos, licet obumbratæ, ferunt; ibique mira florum et fructuum " varietate pascuntur oculi; simulque festivis avium cantilenis, quas umbra, aqua, victus alliciunt, recreantur aures.”

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Desfontaines, Flora Atlantica, tom. ii. Append. p. 439. t Conversations on Vegetable Physiology, vol. ii. p. 108. u Decandolle, Théorie Elém. de la Botanique, 8vo. 1819, p. 25.

that no species exists without its use in the economy of the earth. Of many indeed we witness the direct use, either for the various purposes of civilized society, or for the sustenance of animal life: but for the present let us confine our attention to the latter point in their history; and, although whatever is adapted to the sustenance of animal life in general, is indirectly adapted in a great measure to the actual condition of man, and would therefore justly come within the scope of this treatise; yet, that we may not extend the subject too far, let us consider those species only which constitute the direct food of man; subject indeed frequently to such culinary preparations as make our food not only more palatable, but also more nutritious.

Among the numerous species of vegetables which supply food to man, by far the greater proportion consists of those which may be considered upon the whole as mere luxuries; or at most, as affording an agreeable and sometimes useful variety. Of those species which afford that kind of nutritive matter which is contained in what has been emphatically called the staff of life, or bread, the number is very small; leguminous plants, and wheat, and rice, the fruit and pith and other parts of some of the palms and bananas, and such farinaceous roots as the potato, &c. comprising nearly the whole amount.

It would be unnecessary to point out more

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particularly the importance of some of the foregoing species, to any one at all conversant with the general mode of life of Europeans as to food and a slight acquaintance with the history of the world is sufficient to shew us, that, what wheat and the potato are to Europe, rice is to a considerable portion of Asia, Africa, and America; and the products of the date and cocoa, palms, &c. to the inter-tropical countries of the whole earth. But there are some natural analogies afforded by those species, with reference to the animal kingdom, which are well worthy of observation.

In the animal kingdom all those species which serve extensively for food, as oxen and sheep and swine among quadrupeds; the turkey, the common fowl, and the duck, &c. among birds; and the salmon, cod, herring, &c. among fish, are either naturally of a gregarious nature, or are easily kept together, by human means, in large bodies; and therefore are much better adapted to the purpose of supplying food to man, than if they were either solitary, or scattered into small groups. And so it is with respect to the vegetable species above described: they are capable of being cultivated, gregariously as it were, with comparatively little labour and attention. Thus in our own, and other European countries, the daily labourer, after his hours of hired work for others, can cultivate his own private field of

wheat or of potatoes, with very little additional expense of time or trouble. And as to the cultivation of the tropical fruits, scarcely any labour is required for that purpose: so that to the less hardy natives of those climates the assertion of the poet is strictly applicable,

"Fundit humi facilem victum justissima tellus."

A further analogy is observable in the degree of fertility of the respective vegetables and animals. Among the animals which are destined for the food of man, the species are upon the whole prolific in proportion as they are either small in size, or inferior as to the nutritive quality of their flesh. The cow, which is a large animal, produces one usually at a birth; the sheep very commonly two; swine, several. Poultry, which are comparatively small, are capable of rearing a numerous brood; and fish, which are of a less nutritious nature, and generally smaller than quadrupeds, are still more prolific. And, similarly, in the vegetable species which are destined for the food of man, the numerical quantity of the product in a given area is greater or less, in proportion to the individual size of the fruit produced. Dates, which are smaller than cocoa-nuts, are produced in greater number than the latter; and in a square yard of soil, a much greater number of grains of rice or wheat is produced than of roots of the potato.

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