210 



THE POPULAR EDUCATOR. 



America, where these plants flourish, the country re^ 

 mains in its wild natural state, even in the vicinity 

 of large towns; the inhabitants not being obliged to 

 extend their cultivation. The vigorous races of North 

 America, however, cultivate wheat, barley, and oats, and 

 the tropical rice, all of which, in their respective zones, 

 flourish abundantly. Bread-fruit has been introduced, 

 and pine-apples have become so plentiful that they grow 

 in the fields in the West Indies as turnips do with us ; 

 and many shiploads reach our markets in the season at 

 so moderate a cost as to bring this chief among choice 

 fruits within reach of the poor. 



Coffee and sugar have proved their adaptation to the 

 American tropics, the crops of both being enormous. 

 The East Indian spices also grow in the West Indian 

 islands, although not in the same perfection. Cotton 

 has found the foreign conditions of growth in America 

 superior to those of its native soil, and its spread is 

 almost beyond belief. The American crops transcend 

 all those of the rest of the earth. 



Besides these vegetable products that appertain to 

 food and clothing, America possesses peculiar forest 

 growths. At the head of these we must place the 

 mahogany tree, the beautiful colour and grain of which, 

 as well as its durability, placed it on its discovery 

 highest amongst cabinet timber. Logwood, Campeachy, 

 and Nicaragua woods are examples of American valuable 

 dye-woods. 



The tendency to efflorescence in the trees of America, 

 and the floral beauty of many of the shrubs and animals, 

 have encouraged their diffusion through Europe. Our 

 gardens owe to this source the grand flowering rhodo- 

 dendron and the magnolia. The American aloe and the 

 cactus have found a congenial region round the Mediter- 

 ranean, where they exhibit all their native vigour. The 

 dahlia, fuchsia, nasturtium, and passion-flower, all had a 

 Western origin. Many other trees and plants, valued 

 for their foliage or beauty of development, from the 

 colder parts of America, where flowers are less profuse, 

 adorn the parks and pleasure-grounds of Europe. 



Vegetable Produce according to the Floral Zones. 



Our previous knowledge of the zones, as applied to 

 the Old World, combined with the general knowledge 

 gained of the produce of the New World, prepares us for 

 a brief description of this division of the subject. 



The boreal region, or climate of mosses and berries, is 

 like that of Lapland. The arborescent forms, at the 

 extreme limit of the zone, are a few stunted birches, 

 willows, and junipers ; otherwise the ground is covered 

 with a thick growth of lichen and moss, which defies the 

 cold and overpowers other vegetation. Towards the 

 southern border extensive forests, which extend into the 

 next climatic zone, characterise the country. 



The region of European grains and forest trees is 

 bounded southwards by the line of vine culture and the 

 growth of maize. Canada and the northern United States 

 are included within it. Peculiar species of oak, beech, 

 and numerous other forest trees, orchard fruits and nuts, 

 the cereals, and in the south maize, the common fibres, 

 and, to some extent, tobacco, all flourish in this zone; 

 woods of great value and beauty, the bird's eye maple 

 and the mast pine being the chief varieties noted for the 

 delicacy of their grain and texture. A peculiarity of the 

 North American forests is, that one description of tree 

 prevails on each variety of soil, evidence of which is 

 given in the descriptive names of oak lands, chestnut 

 lands, pine barrens, and cypress swamps. 



The sugar maple supplies from its sap most of the 

 sugar used in Canada, and much of that used in the 

 United States, and its produce might be indefinitely 

 increased. Potash, principally from the beech, pitch, tar, 

 rosin, and turpentine are forest products, in quantities 

 corresponding with the endless sources of supply, but 



identical with those of Europe. Trenching on the warmer 

 regions, the myrtle wax-tree, a kind of laurel, abounds, 

 and supplies in its nuts a dry and brittle wax, of excellent 

 quality and large amount. 



The region of wheat and tropical grains is productive 

 also of maize and rice, the vine, citron, and melon, as in 

 the Old World; but in reference solely to America, 

 perhaps cotton and tobacco would be more descriptive 

 of the zone. 



The mountains of Mexico separating that country from 

 the rest of the region, and placing it on a table land raised 

 7,000 to 9,000 feet high, in parts, give it a flora pecu- 

 liarly its own, the botanical centre of the cochineal- 

 cactus and other plants. On the east the Alleghaniea 

 separate the fertile valley of the Mississippi from the 

 poorer soil and barren swamps lying between these 

 mountains and the Atlantic shores. 



The true tropical parts of America comprehend the 

 central states, that is Mexico, the republics of Central 

 America, and two-thirds of the southern continent. All 

 the useful food plants of India are diffused throughout 

 this zone, besides a rich vegetation of its own. Tropical 

 grains and manioc, ginger and other spices, coffee, sugar- 

 cane, and sweet fruits, gourds and pine-apples, cocoa- 

 nut and other palms, bamboos and tree-ferns, tobacco, 

 drugs, dyes, and timber are amongst the contributions 

 that Central America offers for man's service. Tropical 

 South America adds other gifts. The palms are in great 

 variety. Besides the cocoa-palm there are the cabbage, 

 the fan, and the oil-palms, the coquilla and the vege- 

 table ivory. Bread-fruit trees, and cow-trees producing 

 milk, are numerous; and from allied plants, charac- 

 terised by their milky juices (Euphorbiacece), our chief 

 supplies of caoutchouc are procured. Other products of 

 an important nature, such as the cacao, indigenous to 

 the country, have already been mentioned. 



The flora of the Andes ranges vertically through every 

 climatic zone, beginning with the plantains and palms 

 afe their torrid base, and passing through the intermediate 

 phase of climate, to the silent and frozen mountain sum- 

 mits, devoid of life. 



South of the Tropic of Capricorn the products of the 

 torrid and temperate zones interluse. No rice is seen, 

 but maize grows with wheat and barley, and palms 

 and the mulberry flourish together ; tobacco, hemp, and 

 flax ripen by the side of the melon, the lime, and the 

 olive. Chili produces a surplus of wheat for exportation 

 to Great Britain and other countries. Brazil is in many 

 parts still covered with forests almost impenetrable. 

 From them mahogany, rosewood, and various dye-woods 

 are obtained. 



Beyond 40 south latitude there is little cultivation, 

 and vegetation diminishes rapidly. The climate would 

 admit of grain being grown, but, except in a few parts, 

 the soil is a shingly desert upon which little will grow 

 that can be turned to any economic use. The peninsula 

 tapers to a point which trends southwards to the lati- 

 tude of 55, and the last ten degrees are utterly cold and 

 desolate. 



LESSONS IN FRENCH. LXXI. 

 65. THE PARTICIPLE. 



(1.) THE participle is so called, because it participates of the 

 nature both of the verb and of the adjective. It partakes of 

 the nature of the verb, in having its signification and an 

 object, and of the nature of the adjective in qualifying, like 

 the latter, nouns and pronouns. 



(2.) There are two sorts of participles ; the present and the 

 past. 



66 (1). THE PARTICIPLE PRESENT. 



(1.) The participle present, which denotes continuance of 

 action, answers to the English participle in ing. 



