CLASS III. ORDER II.] GRASSES. 71 



culture on the north-west of America appears to be somewhat higher; 

 for, in the more southern Russian possessions (.57° to 58°), barley and 

 rye come to maturity. On the east coast of America it is scarcely 

 above 50° to 52°. Only in Europe, namely in Laplanfl, does the polar 

 limit reach an unusually high latitude (70°). Beyond this, dried fish, 

 and here and there potatoes, supply the place of grain. 



" The grains which extend farthest to the north of Kurope are barley 

 and oats. These, which in the milder climates are not used for bread, 

 afford to the inhabitants of the northern parts of Norway and Sweden, 

 of a part of Siberia and Scotland, their chief vegetable nourishment. 



" Rye is the next which becomes associated with these. This is the 

 prevailing grain in a great part of the northern temperate zone, namely, 

 in the south of Sweden and Norway, Denmark, and in all the lands 

 bordering on tlie Baltic; the north of Germany, and part of Siberia. 

 In the latter, another very nutritious grain, buck wheat, is very fre- 

 quently cultivated. In the zone where rye prevails, wheat is also 

 generally found ; barley being here chiefly cultivated for the manufac- 

 ture of beer, and oats supplying food for the horses. 



" To these there follows a zone in Europe and western Asia, where rye 

 disappears, and wheat almost exclusively furnislies bread. The mid- 

 dle, or the south of France, England, part of Scotland, a part of Ger- 

 many, Hungary, the Crimea and Caucasus, as also the lands of middle 

 Asia, where agriculture is followed, belong to this zone. Here the vine 

 is also found ; wine supplants the use of beer; and barley is conse- 

 quently less raised. 



" Next comes a district where wheatstill abounds, butno longer exclu- 

 sively furnishes bread ; rice and maize becoming frequent. To this 

 zone belong Portugal, Spain, part of France on the Mediterranean, 

 Italy, and Greece ; further, the countries of the east, Persia, northern 

 India, Arabia, Egypt, Nubia, Barbary, and the Canary Islands; in 

 these latter countries, however, the culture of the maize or rice, towards 

 the south, is always more considerable, and in some of them several 

 kinds of Sorghum (Doura) and Poa Abyssinica come to be added. In 

 both these regions of wlieat, rye only occurs at a considerable eleva- 

 tion ; oats, however, more seldom, and at last entirely disappear ; bar- 

 ley affording food for horses and mules. 



" In the eastern parts of the temperate zone of the Old Continent, in 

 China and Japan, our northern kinds of grain are very unfrequent, 

 and rice is found to predominate. The cause of this difference between 

 the east and west of the Old Continent appears to be in the manners 

 and peculiarities of the people. In North America, wheat and rye 

 grow as in Europe, but more sparingly. Maize is more reared in the 

 Western than in the Old Continent, and rice predominates in the 

 southern provinces of the United States. 



" In the torrid zone, maize predominates in America, rice in Asia, 

 and both these grains in nearly equal quantity in Africa. The cause 



