302 



UNITED STATES. 



the introduction of cotton was one of the staple arti- 

 cles of the country. 



In reviewing the foregoing account of the native 

 vegetables of the United States, we find many of 

 them useful for all the mechanical purposes of life, 

 others for medicine, others for dyeing, while some 

 are applicable to all these purposes. 



It is not to be understood that the list comprehends 

 the whole of the useful vegetable productions of the 

 United States. Many more might have been enume- 

 rated, did not the plan of the present work, and the 

 limits necessarily prescribed to it, require brevity on 

 the various subjects treated of. For further infor- 

 mation on this head, the reader is referred to acother 

 publication.* 



Of the useful exotics now naturalized in the 

 United States, may be mentioned the grateful orange 

 of Georgia and Carolina, the tallow tree, ( croton 

 sebiferiim J of China, which Avas introduced into 

 South Carolina by the late H. Lawrens ; the melia 

 azederach^ or pride of India, already noticed ; the 

 maranta arundinacea^ or medicinal arrow root, 

 which grows luxuriantly in the islands Jekyl and 

 Cumberland on the coast of Georgia ; the digitalis 

 purpurea^ or purple fox glove ; the artemesia dra- 

 cunculus^ or tarragon, so celebrated for perfuming 

 vinegar in France ; the palma christi^ or castor oil 

 nut, which might become .an important article of 

 commerce from the southern states.. ..The qualities of 

 the above plants are well known, but another which 

 yet remains, deserves to be particularly noticed, viz. 



* Domestic EncyclopscfHa, Philadelphia edition. 



