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Food for different Latitudes. — Shrubs and Floiccrs. Vol. IX. 



Food for different Latitudes. 



From Fownes' Prize Essay on Chemistry, 

 as exemplifying the Wisdom and Beneficence 

 of God : 



"We are accustomed to look with horror 

 and disgust at the food of these poor people, 

 as we in our ignorance and presumption 

 dare to call them ; to commiserate those 

 who, as our northern navigators relate, pre- 

 fer a piece of tallow-candfe, or a draught of 

 train-oil, to the fare of an English man-of- 

 war; hut a little more consideration might 

 perhaps show us, that the blubber and fat of 

 the arctic cetacea and fish, the only food the 

 inhabitants of these countries can obtain, 

 really constitute the only sort of food which 

 could enable them to bear up against the 

 extremities of cold to which they are sub- 

 ject. There is no other substance but fat, 

 and that in very large quantity, which would 

 answer the purpose required. It is a sub- 

 stance exceedingly rich in hydrogen, and in 

 the body eminently combustible ; weight for 

 weight, it will generate a far larger amount 

 of heat, when burned in the blood, than any 

 thing else which can be taken as food. It 

 will be wiser, then, instead of condemning, 

 as filthy and abhorrent, the tastes and pro- 

 pensities of the Esquimaux, to consider them 

 as a special adaptation, by an unspeakably 

 benevolent Providence, of the very wishes 

 and inclinations of the individual to the cir 

 cumstances of his life. 



"But this is not all: the same individual 

 who, when in a warm or temperate climate 

 craves a large proportion of bread and vege- 

 table food, and turns with aversion from fatty 

 substances, experiences, when transported 

 to the frozen regions of the north, a com- 

 plete revolution in his tastes and desires 

 Nothing will then satisfy him but fat: the 

 flesh of deer, fish, to be acceptable, must be 

 loaded with fat; he takes delight in sucking 

 the marrow from the bones ; nothing in the 

 shape of grease comes amiss to him; he 

 longs for it, he desires it as much as he 

 formerly loathed it. But this new, this in- 

 duced state, only lasts as long as his mode 

 of life requires; removal to a milder region 

 restores, to a very great extent, the first 

 condition." 



Ornamental Shrubs and Flowers. 



The cultivation of flowers, and shrubs, 

 and vines, is a remarkable and prominent 

 feature in the landscape of England ; and a 

 circumstance which has given no little grat- 

 ification to my national pride, has been the 

 profusion of American plants, azalias and 

 kalmias, magnolias and rhododendrons, and 



a large variety of pines and firs, wliich are 

 seen in the shrubberies and plantations, and 

 pleasure grounds, both public and private. 

 A very large establishment in London^ is 

 exclusively devoted to the sale of American 

 plants; and they are everywhere admired 

 lor the splendor of their foliage and the 

 beauty of their flowers. Green-houses and 

 conservatories are almost universal in the 

 country, where anything like a garden ex- 

 ists ; and the better class of houses are sur- 

 rounded and adorned with a great variety 

 of flowering shrubs and plants, presenting, 

 through the season, a charming succession 

 of gay' and brilliant ornaments. Even the 

 labourer's humble cottage, too seldom, I ani 

 compelled to admit, anything but a pictur- 

 esque object, will occasionally have its flow- 

 ering shrubs adorning its doorway, and the 

 ivy hanging its beautiful tresses over its 

 window, forming, as it were, a mirror, set 

 in a frame of the richest green. The vil- 

 lage of Marr, in Yorkshire, not far from 

 Doncaster, and the village of Edensor, in 

 Derbyshire, near Chatsworth, and the vil- 

 lage of Lord Brownlow, in Lincolnshire, the 

 best built and by far the handsomest villages 

 I have yet seen in England, to cottages of 

 an excellent and picturesque construction, 

 monuments of the liberality of their pro- 

 prietors, add these beautiful rural embellish- 

 ments of vines, and shrubs, and flowers, and 

 at first blush compel a reflecting mind to 

 admit the moral influence of such arrange- 

 ments upon the character and manners of 

 their inhabitants. Churches and ruins, like- 

 wise, are often seen spread over with the 

 ricliest mantlings of ivy; and, among many 

 others, the venerable and magnificent re- 

 mains of Hardwicke Hall, for example, are 

 covered, I may say, in the season of its 

 flowering, with a gorgeous robe of it, mat- 

 ting its sides with indescribable luxuriance, 

 climbing its lofiy battlements and fringing 

 its empty windows and broken arches, as 

 though nature would make the pall of death 

 exquisitely beautiful and splendid, that she 

 might conceal the hideousness of decay, and 

 shut from the sight of frail mortals these 

 affecting monuments of the vanity of human 

 grandeur and pride. 



I have said and written a great deal to 

 my countrymen about the cultivation of 

 flowers, ornamental gardening, and rural 

 embellishments; and I would read them a 

 homily on the subject every day of every 

 remaining year of my life, if I thought it 

 would have the efi^ect which I desire, of in- 

 ducing them to make this matter of particu- 

 lar attention and care. When a man asks 

 me what is the use of shrubs and flowers, 

 my first impulse always is to look under his 



