THE VEGETATION OP THE VIRGIN-FOEEST. 
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about that nations living so widely ajiart and so mutually antagonistic 
have, out of the rich tropical A'^cgetation, selected plants that have 
analogous, if not identical, effects on the nervous system, such as the 
mate, cacao, guaraua, coca, coffee, and tea ; and this, moreover, at a 
time when even the rudiments of natural science were not in existence. 
The process of satisfying this cra^ung for stimulants, which seems to 
be so deeply rooted in mankind, has without doubt been the means of 
promoting the advance of civilisation. Our knowledge of the facts 
connected with pre-historic American cultivation being so indefinite, it is 
the more to be regretted that the inecise period at which some American 
Noah first made his lucky discovery of mate or coca Avill probably 
continue to be as doubtful as the exact date at which some serious Arab 
first brewed the reviving black drink of the Levant. 
AVhethcr these fh-st movements of civilisation, visible iu the use of 
such treasures, reach as far back in America as they do in Asia, cannot, 
therefore, be decided a prion; the same impenetrable darkness covers 
both. But, notwithstanding their subsequent disparity, it is certainly 
possible that the natives of both the Old and the New World reached, 
at about the same time, a sufficient degree of civilisation to enable them 
to appropriate to the use of themselves more of the surrounding gifts 
of Nature than a few wild fruits and easily-caught animals; they only 
began the battle of life imder unequal conditions. Besides higher mental 
gifts originally, perhaps, allotted to the Caucasian race, the advantages of 
more favourable climate, and the topographical superiority of part of Asia 
and Southern Europe, have enabled nations on the shores of the Mediter- 
ranean, more than two thousand year's ago, to attain to so high a degree 
of civilisation that its achievements are our models to this very day, 
Avlide the natives of the New World still remain wild and half- wild 
fishers and hunters. 
Only in Mexico, Central America, and Peru, have favouring circum- 
stances helped the red-skins to pass, by an easy transition, from the 
condition of himters and nomads to that of cattle breeders and agricul- 
tiu’ists, and thus to reach a higher degree of civilisation ; while, on the 
contrary, in the rest of America, immense tracts of forest rendered cattle 
breeding impossible, reduced agriculture to a minimum, and necessitated 
the dispersion of the various tribes, iu small hordes, to secure their 
maintenance by the produce of the chase. Of course, every such 
separation was rendered permanent by the difficulty of communication ; 
A. 
