68 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS. 



oats are not cultivated, excepting in situations 

 considerably above the level of the sea : the in- 

 habitants of those countries have other species of 

 grain, or other food. The cultivation of the vine 

 succeeds only in countries where the annual 

 temperature is between 50 and 63 degrees. In 

 both hemispheres, the profitable culture of this 

 plant ceases within 30 degrees of the equator, 

 unless in elevated situations, or in islands, as 

 Teneriffe. The limits of the cultivation of maize 

 and of olives in France are parallel to those 

 which bound the vine and corn in succession to 

 the north. In the north of Italy, west of Milan, 

 we first meet with the cultivation of rice ; which 

 extends over all the southern part of Asia, wher- 

 ever the land can be at pleasure covered with 

 water. In great part of Africa millet is one of 

 the principal kinds of grain. 



Cotton is cultivated to latitude 40 in the new 

 world, but extends to Astrachan in latitude 46 in 

 the old. The sugar cane, the plantain, the mul- 

 berry, the betel nut, the indigo tree, the tea tree, 

 repay the labours of the cultivator in India and 

 China; and several of these plants have been 

 transferred, with success, to America and the 

 West Indies. In equinoctial America a great 

 number of inhabitants find abundant nourish- 

 ment on a narrow space cultivated with plantain, 

 cassava yams, and maize. The cultivation of 

 the bread fruit tree begins in the Manillas, and 



