208 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



absolute necessity ; but in the progress of time, and 

 when the Mexicans had shaken off the yoke which 

 rendered this restricted appropriation necessary, the 

 owners of the Chinampas applied themselves to the 

 production of vegetable luxuries, and grew fruits and 

 flowers and odoriferous plants, which were used for 

 the embellishment of their temples and the recreation 

 of their nobles. Daily at sun-rise, according to the 

 Abbe Clavigero, were seen to arrive at the city of 

 Mexico innumerable boats loaded with various kinds 

 of flowers and herbs, the produce of these floating 

 islands. The garden is sometimes seen to contain the 

 cottage of the Indian who is employed to guard a con- 

 tiguous group of gardens ; and on each one there 

 is commonly erected a small hut under which the 

 cultivator can shelter himself from storms or from 

 the intense heat of the sun. If it is wished to place 

 the garden in a different place, this is easily ef- 

 fected by means of long poles, or by rowers placed 

 in a boat to which the garden is fastened. In the 

 driest seasons the Chinampas are always productive, 

 and it is not difficult to renew the powers of the soil 

 by means of mud taken from the bottom of the 

 lake, and which is highly fertilizing. One of the 

 most agreeable recreations afforded to the citizens of 

 Mexico is that of proceeding in small boats in the 

 evening among these gardens, the vegetation upon 

 which is always in a state of luxuriance. 



Floating gardens are maintained also on some of 

 the rivers and canals in China, where an excessive 

 population produces the same effect as that just men- 

 tioned as having resulted from the oppression exercised 

 upon the Aztecs by their Tepanecan conquerors ; and 

 the inhabitants are obliged to have recourse to every 

 expedient for increasing the means of subsistence. 



Of those emigrants whp under ordinary circum- 

 stances take up their permanent residence in distant 

 colonies, a large proportion is drawn from the agri- 



