322 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



epithet of ze/5*p«, or corn- giving. Nature, in facl, 

 has formed it for growing in all fuuarions, from 

 the Line to the very border of the Frozen Ocean. 

 One fpecies is adapted to the humid places of 

 warm countries, as the rice of Afia, which grows 

 in vaft abundance in the muddy fwamps by the 

 fide of the Ganges. Another is fuited to the marfhy 

 grounds of cold countries ; fuch is a kind of falfe- 

 oats, which naturally grows on the banks of the 

 rivers of North-America, and of which many fa- 

 vage Nations annually raife immenfe crops *. 



Other kinds of corn thrive wonderfully well on 

 warm and dry lands, as the millet and the pannick 

 of Africa, and the maize of Brafil. In our climates, 

 wheat agrees beft with a ftrong foil, rye with a 

 fandy one, buck-wheat with rainy declivities, oats 

 with humid plains, barley with flony ground. Bar- 

 ley fucceeds in the very bofom of the North. I 

 have feeti, as far up as the fixty -firft degree of 

 North-Latitude, amid ft the rocks of Finland, crops 

 of this grain as beautiful as ever the plains of Pa- 

 leftine produced. 



Corn affords an abundant fupply to all the ne- 

 ceffities of Man. With it's flraw he enjoys the 



* Confult Father Hennepin, a Francifcan : Cbamplain, and 

 other Travellers through North-America. 



means 



