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habitants of Norway, Sweden, and Scotland, 

 their chief vegetable nourishment. Rye comes 

 next to these ; it is the prevailing grain along 

 the borders of the Baltic, and in part of Siberia. 

 Next follows a zone including Europe and a 

 large part of Western Asia, where rye disappears, 

 and wheat almost exclusively furnishes bread. 



" The next district extends across Barbary, 

 Egypt, Persia, and the countries of the East, 

 where, though wheat abounds, rice and maize 

 are extensively cultivated ; and in some of those 

 countries the sorghum, which yields a grain 

 resembling millet, and the poa Abyssinica, are 

 largely used by the inhabitants. In the eastern 

 parts of the temperate zone, including China and 

 Japan, rice predominates over all other grains- 

 Between the tropics, maize prevails in America, 

 rice in Asia, and both in nearly equal quantities 

 in Africa; probably because Asia is the native 

 country of rice, and America of maize. The 

 native country of wheat has not yet been ascer- 

 tained, but there are few places into which it has 

 not been introduced. Several other grains and 

 plants that supply food, are cultivated in the 

 torrid zone> but we cannot touch on them now, 

 as they are not grasses. 



" In the Highlands of South America, there 

 is a distribution similar to that arising from dif- 

 ference of latitude. Maize is not found beyond 

 the height of six thousand feet, from thence to 



