206 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



FORESTS AND PLANTING. 



WE have thus taken a general view of the principal 

 timber which is used in this country, in building and 

 in manufactures. The limits of this work necessarily 

 preclude the insertion of much information that might 

 be useful and amusing; but we have endeavoured to 

 select from the great mass of materials which the 

 subject affords, such as might best gratify the 

 curiosity of the reader, and excite that habit of 

 observation which is the first step towards real 

 knowledge. 



As timber is one of the most important and valu- 

 able materials which man employs for the promotion 

 of his comforts, and is, even to the rudest, abso- 

 lutely necessary in many ways, so, fortunately, it is 

 the most plentiful of all the productions of nature. 

 We have given, in the preceding pages, many details 

 of the extent of the forests of the north of Europe, 

 and of America. In parts of the coasts of South 

 America, Humboldt found the largest trees growing 

 in such unbounded luxuriance, that he could scarcely 

 set foot on the shore, so thick were the woods, run- 

 ning down even to the water's edge. This thickness 

 of vegetation is a remarkable characteristic of that 

 part of the world; and where the climate is unfa- 

 vourable to the growth of trees, rank grass and 

 thistles shoot up, in a profusion, and with a rapidity, 

 which is quite astonishing. The great plain on the 

 east of the Cordillera, called the Pampas, is about 

 nine hundred miles in breadth; and its vegetable 

 productions are either small evergreens, clover, or 

 thistles, according to the climate of the several dis- 

 tricts. In the spring, the region of thistles presents 

 a most extraordinary spectacle. They suddenly spring 



