STUDY XI. 33I 



tafte like cheftnuts *. We have found, in Ame- 

 rica, the potatoe in the clafs of Jolana, which are 

 poifons. It is a jafmine of Arabia, which fupplies 

 us with the coffee-berry. The eglantine, with us, 

 produces berries fit only for the ufe of birds ; but 

 that of the Land of YefTb, which grows there 

 among rocks, and the (hells on the fea-fhore, bears 

 cups fo large and fo nouriihing, that they ferve 

 for food to the inhabitants of thofe mores, for a 

 considerable part of the year \. The ferns of our 

 hills are unproductive ; but there grows in North- 

 America a fpecies of this plant, called Filix bacci- 

 fera> loaded with berries, which are very good to 

 eatf;. The tree itfelf of the Molucca Iilands, 

 called Libbi by the inhabitants, and palm-fagoe by 

 travellers, is, in the judgment of our Botanifts, merely 

 a fern. This fern contains in it's trunk the fagoe, 

 a fubftance lighter, and more delicate than rice. 

 In a word, there are even certain fpecies of fea- 

 weed, which the Chinefe eat with delight, among 

 others, thofe which compofe the nefls of a fpecies 

 pf fwallow. 



By difpofing in this order, therefore, the plants 

 which produce the principal fubfiftence of Man, 



* See the Catalogue of Garden-Plants of Boulogne, by Hy- 

 (uinth Ambrofino 



f Confult Collection of Voyages by Tbevenot. 



% See Father Charlevoix, his Hiftory of New France, 



as 



