112 ESSEX SOCIETY. 



been the case that the Indians of the extreme north-west of 

 America had communication with the extreme north-east of 

 Asia, and that some one or two species, by this means, found 

 their way into Asia. If such communication existed, which 

 we do not believe, the fact that it was found in China and 

 about the Hymalaya, which is by no means established, would 

 not prove it to be indigenous to Asia. Or, if one or two spe- 

 cies were actually found, the fact that there were no more in 

 Asia, and so many in America, would be a strong evidence of 

 its being exotic in Asia. 



This accumulative evidence seems to us to be satisfactory 

 and conclusive. It was the custom among some of the earlier 

 writers, to speak of America as being sterile and wanting in 

 the most important vegetable productions. They little sus- 

 pected the surpassing richness of the country which had been 

 made known to astonished Europe. The infinite variety of 

 plants indigenous to Mexico, to Central and to South America, 

 where we suppose maize to have originated, is beyond descrip- 

 tion. No country on the globe can excel them in the boundless 

 luxuriance of native, indigenous plants. Here, even the giant 

 trees of the forest are loaded with flowers of every hue and 

 variety. The purple and the blue, and the scarlet, the brilliant 

 yellow and white, twine and mingle Avith every variety of 

 green. Here are the fig, the sugar-cane, the indigo, the aloe 

 and the pepper plants, the passiflora, the pine apple, and the 

 endless varieties of the cactus, with its splendid and variegated 

 blossoms. Here is the night-flowering cereus, the alspice myrtle, 

 the clove, the nutmeg, mango guava, and an infinite variety of 

 palms, rising often to the height of two hundred feet. Here, 

 too, are forests of logwood and mahogany, of colossal gran- 

 deur, often surrounded with shrubbery and parasitic plants, 

 with a foliage so dense that the rays of the sun can never pene- 

 trate. Here is the mimosa, majestic in its size, the beautiful 

 acacia, and grasses that rise to the height of forty and fifty 

 feet, with tree ferns and reeds without number, often seen a 

 hundred feet high. The golden and rose-colored bignonias add 

 their grace and beauty to the teeming masses of blooming life. 

 The laurels become splendid forests. Plantains grow to gi- 



