168 



HISTORY OF THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 



fi-om ono latitude to another. Thus the pines 

 of the north are found on the high lands of 

 Mexico as far as the isthmus of Panama; and 

 the liquid amber, a handsome tree, sometimes 

 cultivated in our shruhberies, where it is valued 

 for its fragrance, covers the declivities of the 

 American mountains within the tropics, in lati- 

 tudes 18 — 19°, and is found at the level of the sea, 

 in latitude 4S^°; while the native plants of Africa 

 are, for the most part, quite distinct from those 

 of Europe. 



In the southern part of the United States are 

 extensive plantations of tobacco, rice, and cotton. 

 The tobacco plant, which is thought to be a 

 native of the Andes, is seen not unfrequently 

 in our gardens. The use of tobacco was intro- 

 duced into England by Sir "Walter Raleigh, in 

 the reign of Elizabeth. Our best rice is from 

 Carolina; hut this grain is likewise imported 

 from India, in which country, as well as in 

 China, it forms a great part of the food of the 

 inhabitants. The rice plant is said by Linnseus 

 to be a native of Ethiopia. Cotton is procured 

 from the pods of several plants, but all of them 

 of one family: it forms the covering of the seeds. 

 Those of the larger species, which attain to the 

 magnitude of trees, require, according to Hum- 

 boldt, a mean annual temperature of at least 

 C8°: the shrubby kind is cultivated with success 

 imder a mean temperature of 60 to G4°, as far 

 as latitude 40°. In the Old World this culture 

 is can-ied on near Astracan, in latitude 4G°. 



The tree which furnishes us with mahogany, 

 is a native of the New World. It grows to a 

 large size, and produces handsome spikes of 

 white flowers, not unlike those of the lilac. The 

 mahogany of best quality comes from St Do- 

 mingo; an inferior sort from Honduras, on the 

 western shore of the Caribbean sea. From the 

 same coast we receive two species of dye-wood: 

 logwood, which yields a purple colour; and 

 fustic, a brown. Brazil wood, which gives a 

 red colour, is from Florida, on the other side of 

 the gulf of Mexico. In the territories of the 

 republic of Mexico grows the sun-flower, which 

 in its native soil is said to attain to a height of 

 twenty feet, with a flower two feet in diameter. 

 The Jerusalem artichoke, nearly allied to the 

 sun-flower, is from Brazil; the word Jerusalem 

 being a comiption of the Italian girasole, "turn 

 to the sun;" alluding to a property said to be 

 possessed more or less by all the plants of this 

 genus. From Mexico comes likewise the splendid 

 dahlia, which was introduced into this country 

 by lady Holland, in 1804. From Peru we have 

 the potatoe, the nasturtium, the scarlet fuchsia, 

 and the fragrant heliotrope. The common 

 passion-flower is from Brazil. 



The cactus family belongs as exclusively to 

 the New World, as the heaths to the Old. As 

 ipcciroens of this extensive genus may be men- 



tioned the prickly pear, or Indian fig, and the 

 creeping cereus, which are common in our green- 

 houses. There is something very marked and 

 extraordinarj- in the aspect of this tribe. In 

 many of the species the functions of the leaves 

 and the stems are so confounded, that it is difii- 

 cult to say which of these parts is present, and 

 which wanting. In the Indian fig it is the stem 

 which seems wanting, the thick, fleshy leaves 

 growing one out of the other: the foliage of the 

 creeping cereus, on the other hand, consists en- 

 tirely of long trailing stems like cat's tails. In 

 most of the cacti, the plant is set with prickles 

 disposed in bunches, wliich enter the flesh of a 

 person handling them imprudently, and cause 

 inflammation, Theflowersare generally beautiful 

 and brilliant; not produced on stalks, but issu- 

 ing directly from the substance of the plant. 

 A few of the cacti are found in the United States 

 of North America; but most of them are natives 

 of the West Indies and South America, where 

 they attain to a great size, and contribute to the 

 singular aspect of the vegetation of the tropical 

 regions of the New World, 



The last mentioned plants have brought na 

 within the limits of the torrid zone. Let us 

 now proceed to take a more general view of the 

 productions of those glowing regions. These 

 productions are not only more numerous, but 

 more splendid in their colours, more fragrant, 

 more pungent in their taste, and more varied in 

 their forms than the plants of other climates. 

 "When a traveller newly arrived from Europe, 

 penetrates for the first time into the forests of 

 South America, if he is strongly susceptible of 

 the beauty of picturesque scenery, he can 

 scarcely," says Humboldt, "define the various 

 emotions which crowd upon his mind; he can 

 scarcely distinguish what most excites his ad- 

 miration, — the deep silence of these solitudes, 

 the individual beauty and contrast of forms, or 

 that vigour and freshness of vegetable life which 

 characterises the climate of the tropics. It 

 might be said that the earth, overloaded with 

 plants, does not allow them space to unfold 

 themselves." The trunks and branches of the 

 trees are covered, not with mosses and lichens, 

 as in our climate, but with beautiful flowers: 

 among the rest with several species of orchis, a tribe 

 of plants, some of which gi-ow wild in our own 

 country; remarkable for the singular resemblance 

 of their flowers to certain species of insects. 

 In the bee orchis, particularly, this resemblance 

 is very striking. "In the ton-id zone," con- 

 tinues Humboldt, "creeping plants often reach 

 from the ground to the very summits of the 

 trees, and pass from one to another at the height 

 of more than a hundred feet, so as to deceive 

 the observer, and lead him to confound the 

 flowers, the fruit, and the leaves, which belong 

 to different species. So thick and uninterrupted 



