HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



183 



peaches, apples, pears, quinces, and other fruits ; car- 

 nations, rofes, violets, jeffamines, fweet-bafil, mint, 

 marjoram, balm gentle, and other flowers and odorous 

 plants brought from Europe all profper there : but in 

 Europe the plants of America do not, nor can in ge- 

 neral come to perfection. Wheat grows in the lands of 

 Europe, but much fmaller, and not fo good as that of 

 America. Of the many delicious fruits of the new world, 

 fome, fuch as the mufa and ananas, have thriven in the 

 gardens of the princes of Europe, by means of hot-houfes, 

 and great care and attention, but not fo well flavoured, 

 or in fuch abundance, as in their native climes. Others 

 ftill more valuable than thefe, fuch as the chirimoya, 

 the mamey, and chicozapote have not yet, as far as we 

 know, been made to grow, notwithstanding the ftudied 

 efforts of European induflry for that purpofe. The 

 caufe of this great difference between America and Eu- 

 rope is that which Acofta mentions : that in America 

 there is a greater variety of climate than in Europe ; 

 from whence it is more eafy to give each plant a tempe- 

 rature proper for it. As it is not an argument of the 

 fterility of Europe, that the plants proper to America do 

 not thrive in it, neither is it an argument of the fterility 

 of fome countries of America, that fome plants of Eu* 

 rope do not thrive in them ; becaufe non omnia fert 

 Minis tellus. Hie fegetes ibi proveniuni felicius uva. On 

 the contrary, the hot countries in which wheat and Eu- 

 ropean fruits do not ripen, are yet the mod pleafant and 

 fruitful. 



We do not doubt that if a comparifon is made of A- 

 merica with the old continent, they will be found equal 

 in their productions : for Afia and Africa have lands and 

 climes fuited to all the plants of America, which, on 



account 



