60 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



high. Tho golden and rose-colored bigiiouias add their gracG 

 and beauty to the teeming masses of blooming life. The laurels 

 become splendid forests. Plantains grow to gigantic size, and 

 beneath all spring lilies and bulbous plants as if not an inch of 

 soil could be spared. Here, also, tlie endless variety of creep- 

 ing plants rise through the twining limbs with their myriad and 

 brilliant flowers. Thousands of species still remain undescribed, 

 and there may be thick and tangled forests which the foot of 

 civilized man has never trodden. Nor is this rich luxriance for 

 a season alone ; for the spring, or the summer, or the autumn. 

 It is everlasting. The unfading verdure hides the very appear- 

 ance of death. The trunks of decayed plants, matted and 

 heaped together, form only rich beds for the living to spring 

 forth in the newness of life. The eye is sated with beauty. 

 The air is filled with perfumes, and one is lost in wonder and 

 amazement at nature herself. This is the native country of 

 maize. A country unparalleled in the magnificence of its flora, 

 and unequalled in the depth and richness of its soil ! 



America has received from the old continent, wheat, barley, 

 oats, rice, cotton, coffee, oranges, lemons, peaches, and other 

 useful plants, while she has well repaid them with Indian corn, 

 the potato, tobacco, cocoa, vanilla, and other grateful produc- 

 tions. 



The names of Indian corn are various. Its synonyms in 

 different languages are as follows : (English,) maize, Indian 

 wheat or Indian corn, corn. (French,) mais or mais, Ble or 

 Bled de Turquie ou d'Espagne, ou d'Inde. (Spanish,) maiz, 

 Trigo de Indias, Trigo de Turkuia. (Italian,) Grano d' India, 

 Grano Turco, Grano Siciliano. (Portuguese,) mais, milho 

 da India, milho grande. (German,) mais, Turkischer korn. 

 (Dutch or Belgic,) mais, Turksch koorn. (Swedish and 

 Danish,) Turkish Hvede, korn. (Russian,) Tureskvichljeb. 

 (Chinese,) La-chou-cha. (Aztec,) TlaoUi. (Quichua,) Cara. 

 (Mexican,) Centli. (Lenni Lenape,) Lenchesquem. (Quon- 

 netiquots, &c.,) wiachin. (Coosaws, &c.,) mayze. (Ilaytian,) 

 mahiz, whence M. Tourneport in France adopted it in his botani- 

 cal nomenclature, and it was there established by Gaertner and 

 De Candolle. 



