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WONDERS OF THE TROPICAL FORESTS. 
his grand discovery. In this manner maize was first con- 
veyed from the New World to Spain, whence its cultivation 
gradually extended over the tropical and temperate zones 
of the eastern hemisphere. Eound the whole basin of the 
Mediterranean, maize has found a new home, and its grain 
now nourishes the Lombard and the Hungarian, as it does 
the Egyptian fellah or the Syrian peasant. 
While our northern cereals only produce a pleasing 
effect when covering extensive fields, bat are individually 
too insignificant to claim attention, the maize-plant almost 
reminds the s]:)ectator of the lofty bamboos of the tropical 
world. Even in our gardens it rises above a man's height, 
and in wanner countries not seldom attains the gigantic 
stature of fourt^ien feet, Ensiform, dark green, lustrous 
leaves, somewhat resembling those of the large oarweeda 
of the northern seas, spring alternately from every joint 
of this cereal, streaming like pennants and sharply rustling 
in the wind. The top produces a bunch of male flowers 
of various colours, which is called the tassd. Each plant 
likewise bears three or more spikes or ears, proceeding 
from the stem, at various distances from the ground, and 
closely enveloped by several thin leaves, forming a sheath, 
or husk. They consist of a cylindrical substance of the 
nature of pith, which is called the cobh, and over the 
entire surface of which the seeds are ranged and fixed, 
in eight or more straight rows. Each of these has gene- 
rally as many as thirty or more seeds, and each seed 
weighs at least as much as five or six grains of wheat or 
barley. Surely a cereal like this deserves beyond all 
others to symbolise abundance, and, had it been known 
to the Greeks, it would beyond all doubt have figured con- 
spicuously in the teeming horn of Amaithea. 
In light sandy soils, under the scorching rays of the 
sun, and in situations where safficient moisture cannot be 
obtained for the production of rice, numerous varieties 
of millet are successfully cultivated in many tropical 
countries— in India, Arabia, the West Indies, in Central 
