Z E A 
807 
Z E A 
thicker. Corolla: glume four-valved, valves unequal, mem¬ 
branaceous, hyaline, wide, short, permanent. Pistil • germ 
very small. Style filiform, longest of all, pendulous. Stigma 
simple, pubescent towards the tip. Pericarp none. Common 
receptacle very large, long, five-cornered, marked with five 
rows of transverse excavations, in each of which two fruits 
are immersed, surrounded with their proper calyx and corolla. 
Seeds solitary, roundish, angular at the base, compressed, longer 
than the glumes, pedicelled.— Essential Character. Males 
in distinct spikes.—Calyx : glume two-flowered, awnless. 
Corolla : glume two-flowered, awnless. Female—Calyx : 
glume one-flowered, two-valved. Corolla: glume four-valv- 
ed. Style one, filiform, pendulous. Seeds solitary, immersed 
in an oblong receptacle. 
Zea mays, or Indian corn or maize.—There are four varie¬ 
ties. The first of these grows naturally in the islands of the 
West Indies; and has a very large strong stalk, rising the 
height of about ten or twelve feet. The leaves are long, broad, 
hang downward, and have a broad white midrib. The male 
flowers come out in branching spikes at the upper part of the 
stalks; these are eight or ten inches long. The female flowers 
come out from the bottom of the leaves on the side of the 
stalk ; they are disposed in a close long thick spike. When 
the seeds are ripe, the spikes or ears are nine or ten inches 
long, and sometimes a foot; but these rarely ripen in Eng¬ 
land. 
The second is cultivated in Italy, Spain, and Portugal. 
The stalks are more slender, and seldom more than six or 
seven feet high. 
The third is cultivated in North America and Germany. 
The stalks are slender, and seldom rise more than four feet 
high. The leaves are shorter and narrower than either of the 
former; they are hollowed like the keel of a boat, and their 
fops hang down. This ripens its grain perfectly well in 
England, in as little time as barley. 
There are several varieties of the two last, differing in the 
colour of the grain. 
Maize is seldom cultivated in England for use ; but in Italy, 
Germany, and North America, it is the food of the poor in¬ 
habitants. We may add the South of France, Barbary, 
China, Cochinehina, and Japan. It is much cultivated in the 
West Indies; in Jamaica in all parts, among the young canes. 
—This plant is an annual; native of America. 
Propagation and Culture —In North America it is treated 
in the following manner. They first dig the ground well in 
the spring, and having made it level, they draw a line across 
the whole piece; then they raise little hills at about three or 
four feet distance, into each of which they put two or three 
good seeds, covering them about an inch thick with earth. 
The rows are four feet asunder, and the hills three or four feet 
distant from each other. Six quarts of seed is allowed to an 
acre, which, if the soil be good, will produce fifty bushels of 
corn. 
ZEAL, s. [from the Gr. £ijAo?, zelus, Latin.] Passionate 
ardour for any person or cause.— Zeal, the blind conductor 
of the will. Dryden. —Good men often blemish the reputa¬ 
tion of their piety by over-acting some things in their reli¬ 
gion ; by an indiscreet zeal about things wherein religion is 
not concerned. Tillotson. 
To ZEAL, v. n. To entertain zeal. Not in use. —Stiff 
followers, such as zeal marvellously for those whom they 
have chosen for their masters. Bacon. 
ZEAL, Monachorum, a parish of England, in Devon¬ 
shire. Population 624.—2. South, a hamlet in the above 
county. 
ZEALAND, a province of the Netherlands, which com¬ 
prises the antient county of Zealand, and Dutch Flanders, 
and is bounded on the west by the sea, on the north by 
Goree and Overflakee, and on the east and south by Brabant 
and Flanders. The chief part of this province consists of 
islands at the mouth of the Scheldt, viz. Schouwen, Duive- 
land, Tholen, Walcheren, North and South Beveland, and 
Wolfersdyk. The continental part is merely a strip lying 
along the south bank of the Hond or West Scheldt. The 
area of of the whole is little more than 570 square miles, but 
the population is about 111,000. The surface is level 
throughout, and lies so low, that it is necessary to protect the 
country from storms by large dykes, which run along the 
coast and the sides of the rivers, and are kept up at great 
labour and expense. The only exceptions are some small 
parts of the islands of Walcheren and Schouwen, where the 
sea has thrown up sand-banks or downs. These dykes are 
from 20 to 30 yards in breadth at the bottom, and of suffi¬ 
cient width at the top for two carriages to pass abreast. / Yet 
different parts of this province have been at times exposed to 
heavy calamities, from the sea breaking over the dykes in 
storms at high tides, particularly in 1302, 1309, 1522, 1532, 
and 1548. In these catastrophes whole towns and districts 
have been overflowed and abandoned ; and though part of 
them have been subsequently recovered, several islands have 
undergone a permanent reduction; in particular, that of 
Schouwen, which is said to have once been 60 miles in cir¬ 
cumference, is now only 25. 
The soil of Zealand is a rich black mould, excellent for 
pasturage and the culture of such crops as madder, flax, and 
cole seed, which require a very heavy soil. Wheat is raised 
chiefly in South Beveland. The air is damp, not from fog, 
but from exhalations from the fresh water in the ditches, 
water-courses, or canals. This affects even the health and 
longevity of the natives. To foreigners it is productive of 
bilious complaints and agues, as was so severely experienced 
by our troops in 1809. The Zealanders on the islands are 
strictly Dutch; on the mainland they are a mixture of Dutch 
and Flemings, They resemble the inhabitants of the rest of 
the United Provinces, in their industry, perseverance, and 
phlegmatic turn. The majority are Calvinists, but there is 
also a number of Catholics and Lutherans, and someMenno- 
nites or Anabaptists. Zealand carries on a very considerable 
trade, and exports large quantities of corn, madder, flax, salt- 
meat, linen yarn, rape-seed, and oil. The province is divided 
into three arrondissements and fifteen cantons: its chief towns 
are Middleburg, Flushing, and Zieric Zee. It sends three de¬ 
puties to the states general. Its provincial slates consist of 
44 members, of whom 6 are for the knights, 20 for the towns, 
and 18 for the country. 
ZEALAND, the largest of the Danish islands, is situated 
between the Cattegat and the Baltic, and is separated from 
Sweden by the Sound, and from Funen by the arm of the 
sea called the Great Belt. It extends from 55. 2. to 56. 8. 
north latitude; has an area of 2600 square miles, with 
310,000 inhabitants ; and contains the Danish capital Co¬ 
penhagen. The surface of this island resembles that of the 
adjacent Danish islands, in being entirely without mountains; 
but instead of being, like several of them, a dead flat, it is 
finely variegated, having small hills and fields, intersected 
by canals, which, in summer, when the air is clear, and the 
ground covered with vegetation, would remind a native of 
Lombardy of his native country. Such are, in particular, 
several tracts along the Sound, the Isefiord, and the Cattegat: 
also the environs of Soroe in the interior. Unluckily the 
great road that crosses the island from Copenhagen to Funen, 
passes through the least varied part of the whole. 
The soil of Zealand is as rich as the appearance is agree¬ 
able. It abounds in corn, particularly barley ; also in good 
pasturage, and exports both grain and cattle. The horses 
are small, but spirited. Wood is also plentiful, except in the 
middle of the island, where it is necessary to use turf for 
fuel. Fish abounds in the numerous bays and creeks with 
which the island is indented in every direction. Here are 
also concentred most of the manufactures and trade of Den¬ 
mark ; but for these we refer to Copenhagen and Denmark. 
Zealand is not included in any bishopric, like the rest of 
Denmark, but forms an ecclesiastical superintendancy. In a 
political sense, it is governed by a grand bailiff’, and is sub¬ 
divided into the bailiwics of Copenhagen, Fredericksburg, 
Holbeck, Soroe, and Praestoe. 
ZEALAND, New, two islands in the South Pacific ocean, 
first discovered by Tasman. In the year 1642 he traversed 
the 
