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CHAPTER IV. 
THE CHIEF ESCULENT PLANTS OF THE TORRID 
ZONE, 
Ric«— Varioua aspe<;t of the Rice-fields at different sptusona— The Rjce- 
Bird — Maize — First importt'd fmm America by Columbus — Its 
enormous productiveness — Its wide zotie of cultivation — Milltjfc, 
DhoiuTa — The lirettd- Fruit Trcu— The Banan&s — Their ancient 
cultivation — Avaca or Manilla Hemp — Humboldt's ruin arks on the 
Bananft — ^The Travel lur's Trfo of Madagascar—The Cassava Root — 
T^ioca — Ya ms — Batatas — A rro wrtxit — Taro — Trui jncal Fru it - Trt-'ca 
—The Chirimoja— The Litchi— The Mangosteua— The Matigo. 
Of all tlie cereals tliere is none tbat affords food to so 
vast a multitode as the rice-plant, oo wliose grains from 
time immemorial the cotmtless oiillions of south-eastern 
Asia chiefly eubsisf. From its primitive seat, on the 
Ganges, or the Sikiang, its ccltivation has gradually 
spread not only over the whole tropical zone, but even 
far beyond its bounds, as it thrives both in the swamps 
of South Carolina and in the fich alluvial plains of the 
Danube and the Po. 
Along the low river btinkj>, in the delta- lands which 
the rains of the tropics aunaully change into a boundless 
lake, or where, by artificial embankments, the waters of 
the mountain streams have been collected into tanks 
for irrigatioUj the rice-plant attains its utmost luxuriance 
of growth, and but rarely deceives the hopes of the 
husbandmen. 
The aspect of the lowland rice- fields of ludia and its 
isles is very different at variotis seasons of the year. 
