ARTICLES OF FOOD. 39 



tions of Asia. In China, agriculture is in an advanced state, 

 and it is for more sensible to look there for information, than 

 to tropical countries. 



Time suffices for but a brief mention of some of the more 

 important vegetable aliments. 



Our government has just introduced the sweet, edible variety 

 of the acorn into this country. Any poetic dreamers who are 

 captivated by the glowing descriptions of the primitive sim- 

 plicity and virtue of the acorn eaters of ancient times, may 

 indulge their imaginations in visions of a millenium return to 

 this food, when the vanities and evils of the luxuries of civiliza- 

 tion shall be no longer known. But those oaks, to be planted 

 by the prudence of our fostering government, won't bear acorns 

 in our day, and we will submit to the hardship, and try and be 

 content with other fare. 



Of all spontaneous, or nearly spontaneous productions, the 

 banana, or plantain, feeds by far the greatest numbers of the 

 race. This delicious fruit offers itself to the inhabitants of 

 equinoctial Asia, America, and tropical Africa, and of the 

 Islands of the Atlantic and Pacific, wlierever the mean tempera- 

 ture exceeds seventy-five degrees. To an immense number of 

 human beings, it is all that wheat, maize, rye and potatoes are 

 to us, — what rice is to the countries of the East. It multiplies, 

 with but slight cultivation, beyond that of any known vegetable. 

 Humboldt says its increase is, as to that of wheat, as one hun- 

 dred and thirty-three to one. Herndon and Gibbon, in the 

 report of their exploring expedition through the valley of the 

 Amazon, say that the natives eat the fruit raw, roasted, boiled, 

 baked and fried ; that they are perfectly satisfied with it, and 

 having no want beyond it, nothing to stimulate to labor or 

 activity, seem doomed to hopeless indigence and barbarism. 



The bread-fruit tree is one of the most interesting plants. 

 Soon after the voyages of Captain Cook, the most extravagant 

 ideas of its importance prevailed in England. The unfortu- 

 nate expedition of the Bounty — undertaken by the English 

 government to transplant the tree from the Society Islands to 

 the West Indies, the mutiny, and the subsequent fortunes of 

 Captain Bligh, and eighteen who were sent adrift, and of the 

 mutineers who remained — affords one of the most interesting 

 and entertaining narratives in our language. As an agricul- 



