40 LETTER IX. 



and with groat success in several parts of Asia and 

 Africa ; but the greatest quantity is raised in the 

 West Indies, and from thence the principal part of 

 our sugar is imported. It has already been remark- 

 ed, that tea was totally unknown to the Greeks and 

 the Romans, and, very probably, to the Egyptians* 

 Babylonians, and Persians, as well as to all the nations 

 of Europe, until towards the close of the fifteenth 

 century. Coftee and chocolate were equally un- 

 known to the ancients ; and before the improvements 

 in navigation, and the extension of commerce, sugar, 

 which now is so plentiful, and so common among all 

 ranks of people, was so scarce and dear, as to con- 

 stitute an article of luxury to be found only at the 

 tables of the opulent. The Romans, when masters of 

 the best part of the world, and possessors of the greatest 

 part of its wealth, were totally ignorant of many of 

 our luxuries, while they indulged in others beyond 

 comparison more expensive. Such are the changes 

 of circumstances, and modes of living in dillcrejat 



THE COTTON-TREE 



Is another of those foreign plants, which, on ac- 

 count of its great commercial importance, is worthy 

 of particular notice ; especially as every one in this 

 country is acquainted with the various manufactures 

 of cotton, while so very few have any knowledge of 

 the tree which produces the materials, which employ 

 so great a number of hands, and from which so many 

 useful and elegant articles of clothing are made. The 

 cotton-tree grows in both the East and West Indies. 

 It is from eight to ten feet high, and is very much tuft- 

 ed at the top. It bears a flower, in shape resembling a 

 bell. There is afterwards produced a nut, which en- 

 closes the seeds of the tree, and around these the cot- 

 ton is wrapped. The tree is always propagated by 

 its seeds, and never planted. Every branch is cut otf 

 when it has produced its cotton, and everv third y^ar 

 the trunk is cut up close to the ground, that new 

 shoets may be produced. By this means the tree is 



