284 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 



natural productions in their country that are 

 not to be found in other parts of the world, 

 have followed the course of the sons of 

 Canaan : 



" For stormy seas they quit the pleasing plain, 

 Plant woods in waves, and dwell amidst the main." 



Arist^us. 



The Phoenicians, by planting colonies in 

 various parts of the Mediterranean, were 

 able to collect all the rarities of the then 

 known world to their city, and thus rendered 

 Tyre " the mart of nations ;" and as long as 

 the justice and good policy of our nation 

 cherish its colonial children with the care 

 of a fond parent, so long will Britons be 

 the envy of nations, and their indigo be as 

 profitable as the purple of Tyre. 



The art of extracting this blue dye from 

 the indigo plant was discovered by the na- 

 tives of the East Indies; and its first intro- 

 duction to Europe was at a time when in- 

 genuity had carried luxury to the highest 

 pitch at Rome. Pliny, who died in the 

 year 79 a.d. says*, " It is not long since they 

 began to bring from India a blue colour, from 

 thence called Indico, which sells from seven- 



# Book xxxiii. chap. 13. 



