80 IMPROVEMENT OF STAPLE PRODUCTIONS. 



acquainted, and provided with the means of raising 

 other crops at different seasons of the year, their 

 situation would be materially altered, and rendered 

 more comfortable, I was going to say, but more 

 endurable ; as I really believe the Hindoos especi- 

 ally have very scanty notions of comfort, at all 

 events to accord with our own on the subject. 



If we have the improvement of the staple pro- 

 ductions of the country at large at heart as our 

 principal object, I will not attempt to deny that 

 there is at the same time a latent selfishness, if it 

 may be so called, which leads us to wish ardently 

 for the introduction of such of the flower-bearing 

 plants of our native land, as are likely to thrive 

 with us. 



In a word, we wish to improve our collections of 

 ornamental plants of every description ; and although 

 we cannot hope, with any chance of success, to 

 infuse any extensive taste for the cultivation of 

 flowers amongst any but the highest class of natives, 

 and even then with difficulty, as those female mem- 

 bers of families who in England may with truth 

 be said to be in many instances the patronesses 

 and almost exclusive votaries of floriculture, do not 

 take any interest in the matter here, still we shall be 



