166 



HISTORY OF THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 



of mimosa, growine on botli sides of the Bed sea, 

 as well as in Senegal, and other parts of Africa. 

 The mimosa family is a very numerous one, all 

 of them natives either of the tropical countries, 

 or of the warmer part of the temperate zone. 

 Some of them have the remarkable property of 

 folding up and drooping their leaves at the ap- 

 proach of night, or when touched by any exter- 

 nal object, whence they have attained the name 

 of sensitive plants. All of them bear pods, like 

 the pea family; but their blossoms are rather 

 like those of the willow, consisting of little globes 

 of yeUow threads. Their leaves (when they pro- 

 duce leaves) are always finely divided, often as 

 much so as those of the carrot, a circumstance 

 which gives to these trees a very peculiar aspect ; 

 but a considerable proportion of the mimosas are, 

 properly speaking, leafless, excepting when very 

 young, or after having been injured. The leaf- 

 stalk, however, remains, and assumes a flatted 

 shape, having somewhat of a leaf-like appearance, 

 but differing from a true leaf in its edge being 

 turned towards the stem its two sides are con- 

 sequently similar, and perform the same func- 

 tions with respect to the light. This is particu- 

 larly the case with the mimosas of New Hol- 

 land. 



Returning to the neighbourhood of the Red 

 Bea, we find, on its eastern shores, the native 

 country of the coffee-tree, which is an evergreen, 

 fifteen or twenty feet high, bearing in the bosom 

 of the leaves several white, sweet-scented flowers, 

 of the size of snowdrops. The flower is suc- 

 ceeded by a berry, containing two seeds : these 

 seeds are coffee. In the neighbourhood of the 

 Red sea is found also that species of cassia whose 

 dried leaves are employed in medicine, under the 

 name of senna, and the plant yielding bitter 

 aloes, which must not be confounded with the 

 American aloe cultivated in our greenhouses. 

 Bitter aloes are brought chiefly from the island 

 of Socotra, in the Arabian sea, near the straits 

 of Babelmandel. 



In the narrow, but fruitful valley of the Nile, 

 we find several new vegetable productions. 

 Among the most remarkable of these is the pa- 

 pyrus, a species of reed which was employed by 

 the Egyptians in early times for making paper. 

 For this purpose, the inner rind of the stem 

 being cut into strips, and laid together somewhat 

 like matting, was pressed with a weight till the 

 whole adhered together. The papyrus is several 

 feet in height, and bears a sort of tuft or feathery 

 head at the top of the stalk : it grows chiefly in 

 marshy places. In Egypt also grows a species 

 of water lily, called the lotus, of which both the 

 root and the seeds are eatable ; and fi-om Egypt 

 was introduced into our gardens the mignonette. 

 This country was once regarded as the gi-anary 

 of Europe, and is still remarkable for its fertility ; 

 producing large crops of rice, wheat, barley, and 



some other species of grain unknown among us; 

 while oats are equally unknown in Egypt ; the 

 horses, as in all parts of the East, being fed upon 

 barley. 



It will scarcely be necessary to say any thing 

 more of the plants peculiar to Africa, except to 

 mention that its southern extremity (the Cape 

 of Good Hope) has supplied us with a consider- 

 able proportion of the most splendid flowers 

 which ornament our greenhouses; particularly 

 the heaths, the geraniums, and the bulbous- 

 rooted plants, comprising 'the two families of 

 ixia and gladiolus. 



Before passing to the New "^^^orld, it wiU be 

 proper to take a cursory survey of the remaining 

 productions of Asia. The weeping willow grows 

 wild in all parts of the temperate zone of this 

 continent, from Persia to Japan. The plant 

 whose root affords the medicinal rhubarb, is 

 from the confines of Russian and Chinese Tar- 

 tary. The crown imperial is from Persia. In 

 the same country grows an umbelliferous plant, 

 from whose root the stinking gum called asa- 

 foetida is procured. From India we have re- 

 ceived the balsam and the kidney bean. There 

 also grows the teak tree, or Indian oak, which 

 has been much employed of late years in ship- 

 building. It so far excels the European oak in 

 durability, that Indian-built ships, constructed 

 of the wood of this tree, often last forty years ol 

 more in those seas, where our ships are mined in 

 five years. Instead of corroding the iron bolts, 

 the teak wood is said to possess an oily quality, 

 which serves rather to preserve them. In India 

 is also found the banyan-tree, whose branches 

 have the remarkable property of drooping to the 

 earth, and there taking root; so that a single 

 tree forms a curiously-arched grove. From 

 China we appear to have originally received the 

 orange tree, which is now cultivated abundantly 

 in Italy, Spain, Portugal, and other parts of 

 the south of Europe. From the same country 

 the hydrangea was introduced by Sir Joseph 

 Banks, in 1790. It has been cultivated by the 

 Chinese in their gardens from time immemorial ; 

 but of what place it is a native seems doubtful. 

 The various species of China rose are of still 

 more recent introduction into this country. The 

 Chinese clirysanthemum, which produces its 

 variously coloured and beautiful blossoms after 

 almost all our other flowers are past, was intro- 

 duced in 179o. From China we are also said to 

 derive the radish and endive. 



The tea tree is cultivated almost exclusively 

 in China and Japan ; and from the first of these 

 countries our whole supply (amounting yearly 

 to about three hundred and fifty thousand chests) 

 is derived. 



Before we travel further southward, to survey 

 the vegetable productions of the ton-id zone, it 

 will be proper to cross the Atlantic, and take a 



