60 Introductm^ View of' the 



general. The Chinese merchants, when they go out to sea, 

 provide themselves with four bamboos, which being placed 

 crosswise, so as to leave a square space in the middle, are 

 slipped over the head, and made fast to the waist with a cord ; 

 and by this simple apparatus they insure their safety in case 

 of wreck. 



We will conclude our sketch of this valuable order with 

 two genera of peculiar interest. That which many consider 

 as the finest-flavoured of all known fruits, the beautiful, fra- 

 grant, and delicious pine-apple, is one of a large genus, 

 Bromelm (from Bromel, a Swedish botanist), of which some 

 of the species yield a pure water, more grateful, perhaps, 

 under certain circumstances, than the pine-apple (Bromelm 

 Ananas) itself. Of the Corypha (from a Greek word signifying 

 the summit, in reference to its frondescence) there is but one 

 species, the fan-palm (C. umbraculifera), an East Indian tree, 

 with a tall straight stem, bearing at the top ten or a dozen leaves, 

 upwards of 1 8 ft. in length, and 1 2 in breadth. One leaf will 

 shelter twenty persons : when dry, they fold like a fan ; and it 

 is not unusual for persons who are travelling, to carry one divi- 

 sion of a leaf by way of parasol. Cottages are roofed, and 

 tents made with them. They supply the place of writing 

 paper ; and, in times of scarcity, the pith within the trunk of 

 the tree is made into bread. 



The second order of this class is at once rich and poor ; 

 poor in number, but rich in quality : it contains but one genus 

 of very considerable importance, but that one is a host in itself. 

 I speak of rice (Oryza sativa), an Ethiopian plant, upon the 

 seed of which many of the inhabitants of the East almost 

 entirely subsist. Its growth is very similar to that of the 

 grasses, differing only in the number of stamens. In cultiva- 

 tion, like most dry plants, it requires a large portion of water ; 

 it is threshed, beaten, or scalded, to clean it from the husk, 

 before it is brought into this country. It has been observed 

 that, in a scarcity of corn, rice may be in part substituted for 

 it in the making of bread ; but the scarcity must be very great, 

 to make that an economical expedient in this country, where the 

 rice sells so high. It is said to have been successfully cultivated in 

 Scotland; and could it be naturalised to this country, so as to be 

 raised in the fenny lands, which cannot be made to produce 

 corn, it might, perhaps, be cheap enough to become a real 

 blessing to the labouring classes, for it is undoubtedly very 

 nutritious ; but, at present, it is rather an article of luxury 

 than of economy for them. In the East, a strong intoxicating 

 spirit is obtained from this grain, there called paddy ; whence 



