THE ELM. 73 



be written upon the subject of these curious wander- 

 ings ; another upon the confraternity that has been 

 instituted among the different countries of the earth 

 by the deliberate transfer of their productions from 

 one to the other. How much does Europe owe to 

 Asia ! How much to America ! How largely in 

 turn does the new world stand indebted to the old ! 

 The walnut and the lilac came first from Persia ; the 

 camellia is from Japan; the vine from the shores of 

 the Caspian. Wheat and barley are from the same 

 opulent part of south-western Asia which tradition 

 declares to have been the birthplace of the human 

 family; cucumbers and melons ripened their first 

 fruits beneath the sun of India; rosemary seems 

 aboriginal to the northern shores of the Mediter- 

 ranean. Extending our survey to America, we find 

 that for the inestimable potato we must thank 

 Brazil; the same great region has enriched our 

 gardens with countless flowers of the rarest beauty ; 

 the ancient world has sent hither, in beautiful recom- 

 pense, two of the most valuable of plants those, 

 namely, which yield coffee and rice. These are but 

 two or three instances out of a thousand that might 

 be cited ; the narration of all would run abreast of 

 the history of human enterprise, and, at the same 

 moment, of nature's fair docility a quality we 

 should never forget or overlook. For what would 

 the world have been had trees and plants and flowers 

 sullenly refused to grow except in the very spots 



