THE WARMER TEMPERATE ZONE. 157 



tures ! How true that, though we have sinned 

 and rebelled against him, he is long-suffering 

 and fall of compassion, and that " his tender 

 mercies are over all his works !" But to return. 

 Immense quantities of .grapes are dried in vari- 

 ous countries, and made into raisins, of which 

 no less than 240,042 cwt. were imported into 

 England in 1848. The " currants " of our 

 grocers' shops are the dried grapes of another 

 variety of vine, (the black corinth,) grown 

 chiefly in the Ionian Islands, 402,306 cwts. 

 were imported in 1848. 



We owe many of our best fruits and sweetest 

 flowers to that part of Asia which lies beneath 

 the warmer temperate zone. In the fruitful 

 valleys of Armenia, south of the chain of Cau- 

 casus, are found whole thickets of lemon, pome- 

 granate, pear, and cherry trees. Every species 

 of fruit cultivated in our gardens grows there 

 apparently wild ; but whether they are to be con- 

 sidered as truly natives of the soil, or as being 

 the remains of very ancient gardens, is the more 

 difficult to determine, as this is just the very 

 spot which appears to have been first peopled 

 by the descendants of Noah. The concurring 

 testimony of both sacred and profane history 

 leaves us no room to doubt that, from this region, 

 as from a centre, arts and civilization were 

 carried to the other regions of the earth, and 

 among them, probably, the art of gardening ; for, 

 though we are unacquainted with the original 

 birthplace of most of our cultivated plants, 

 history informs us, that some of the most 

 14 



