388 O N O P I U M. 



and finell; or by their brillidnt colours, the eye of man. By 

 ihc noble difcovery of the art of dying, many of thefe co- 

 lours have become tributary to tafte, by their tranfmilfion 

 to, and fixation in, other bodies ; nature is thus improved 

 upon, by rendering permanent and fixed thefe her fugaci- 

 ous and traniient ornaments. In medicine, many of the 

 mofl valuable articles of the Materia Medica are derived from 

 this fource ; w^itnefs the ipecacuanha, jalap, rheubarb, 

 gamboge, bark, and opium, with many others which 

 might be mentioned, of lefs note. 



Wherever we look, we find nature tributary to the la- 

 bours of man. Her luxuriance is increafed ; fhe feems anxi- 

 ous to remunerate our fatigue, and to diminifh as far as is 

 in her power the curfe inflicled upon the human race, in 

 the perfons of our firff parents, of" eating their bread with 

 the fweat of their brow." 



Though the bounty of nature is thus varioully extended 

 throughout the regions of the earth, it is not the lefs our 

 duty and intereft:, to endeavour to difcover fuch articles in 

 our ov/n country, as are fimilar or analagous to thofe which 

 we obtain by importation from diftant places ; or at leaflto 

 draw from other countries thofe riches which will prove 

 equally produdiive, when naturaliz'd to our foil and cli- 

 mate. In the immenfe extent of the United States, may 

 be found almofi: every climate from the torrid to the frigid 

 zone. Let us not then defpair of ultimately poflefling 

 among ourfelves, all thofe invaluable fources of health and 

 nutrition which are drawn from the vegetable creation in 

 every part of the globe. 



The pctatoe is not a native of our climate, nor of the 

 European countries in which it is cultivated ; yet it is one 

 of the mofl: ufeful of the vegetable tribe, and grows among 

 us as luxuriantly as in its native foil of South America. 

 The rheubarb, though not natural to the clime of Great Bri- 

 tain, by cultivation, has there become tributary to the 



wants 



