156 ORANGE CULTURE IN FLORIDA. 



pears to have been Sumatra, a grain that we recog- 

 nize as maize, which has been introduced into 

 Europe since the passage round the Cape of Good 

 Hope. We must then admit that the lemon and 

 orange trees could not have originated but in the 

 region beyond the Ganges, and that, in early cen- 

 turies of the empires of the Caesars, they had not 

 yet been brought from those climates where they 

 were indigenous. They increased perhaps still 

 without culture in the midst of the woods, the hand 

 of man not having yet appropriated them as orna- 

 ments for his garden. But this event could not 

 long be delayed. The beauty of the tree, and the 

 facility with which it reproduced itself, would 

 naturally extend the culture to adjoining provinces, 

 and the European, quick to seize the productions 

 of all the rest of the globe, would not fail to enrich 

 himself from these regions. 



Facts prove that this result has been reached, but 

 we know not the date of passage, or the circum- 

 stances favoring it. We will n'ow make this the 

 object of our researches. The Romans, at the time 

 of Pliny, had extended their commerce on the side 

 of India as far as it was ever carried during the 

 empire ; the power of Rome, instead of increasing, 

 only became weaker from this period ; and the fall 

 of the Western portion was accompanied in Europe 

 by the decay of letters, art, agriculture, and com- 

 merce. In this general overturn, the Greeks pre- 

 served, it is true, with a taste for arts and luxury, 



