UCSB LIBRARY
 
 USEFUL PLANTS 
 
 PLANTS ADAJ'TED FOR THE FOOD OF MAN 
 DESCRIBED AND ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 " The eyes of all wait upon Thee; and ThoH givcst 
 them their meat in due season. Thou openest Thine 
 hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thiny." 
 I'SALM cilv. 15, 16. 
 
 L O N D C) N : 
 
 T. N E L S O N A X D SONS, PATERNOSTER R O \V ; 
 EDINIU'ROFI; AND NEW YORK. 
 
 lS/0.
 
 object of the series entitled, " OUR WANTS, AND 
 How THEY ARE SUPPLIED," of which the present 
 volume is the precursor, is to furnish the young 
 reader with a Library of Useful Information on 
 Common Things, conveyed in a pleasant and 
 agreeable manner. It will have for its subjects the general 
 relations in which man stands to the world around him ; 
 his dependence upon its fruits and its animals for the 
 comforts and luxuries of his daily life ; the manner in which 
 he has been led to render it available for increased comfort 
 and additional luxury ; the inexhaustible resources which 
 it places within his reach ; and its obvious adaptation by a 
 Supreme Power to his wants and necessities. It will deal 
 with articles that constantly come under his notice, and 
 yet of which he, as a rule, knows little or nothing ; so true 
 it is that familiarity breeds contempt, and that we feel no 
 interest in what is most immediately connected with us. 
 It will endeavour to do this in an easy and attractive style ; 
 neither stooping below nor rising above a child's intelli-
 
 vl PREFACE. 
 
 gence ; and always endeavouring to convey, though without 
 direct religious teaching, a sense of the debt of love and 
 gratitude due from man to his Creator. . 
 
 Each volume of the series will be complete in itself, 
 though connected with others by a general scope. and aim. 
 
 The present is devoted to an exposition of the immense 
 varieties of Vegetable Food which the goodness of God has 
 placed at our disposal. It traces the different climates and 
 countries from which we obtain these varieties, and shows 
 that each country has its appropriate growth, so that man 
 shall never be without food in the world ; so that man, 
 moreover, shall always have cause to exclaim with the 
 Psalmist: " Praise be to Thee, Father! Thou preparest 
 us food, when Thou hast provided for it ! '""
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Summer in the Harvest-field About Wheat and Barley Oats and Oat- 
 meal Universal Distribution of Corn All about Rice, its Cultivation, 
 and its Varieties The Divine Beneficence Whence comes the Sugar- 
 cane ? A Sugar Plantation Consumption of Sugar 8 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Useful and the Beautiful Chat about Cherries Fruits and Juices- 
 Apples and Pears The Peach Plums and Damsons Varieties of 
 the Orange Ho! for the Strawberry! The Late-lingering Raspberry 
 A Dream of the South Wine and the Vine The Pomegranate of the 
 Bible Who likes Pine-apples ? 35 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 History of the Potato Precepts and Peas The Bean and the Onion 
 Everybody to his Taste Making up a Salad Its Ingredients 
 Cabbages and Superstitions Tropical Plants Spices and Condiments 
 Whence Comes your Dinner? Exports and Imports Beverages- 
 Tea, Coffee, and Chocolate 55
 
 viii CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The Cocoa-nut Tree and its Manifold Uses A Story with a Meaning The 
 Date Palm Turning Common Things to Use The Fruit of the Date 
 and its Value A Coral Island The Bread-fruit Tree The Banyan 
 or Indian Fig The Baobab Graves for Sorcerers The Garden of 
 Eden A Look at Home Chestnut Trees An Extraordinary Tree 
 The Pleasures of Nutting Walnuts Brazil Nuts Almonds In- 
 gredients of Beer 83 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Lichens and Mosses Iceland Moss Tripe de Roche Sea-weeds The 
 Fungi Mushrooms and Truffles Geographical Distribution of Plants 
 Europe, and its Three Regions Asia Africa America South 
 America : its Llanos, Virgin Forests, and Pampas New Zealand and 
 Australia Te Deum Laudamus . . . 126
 
 OUR VEGETABLE FOOD. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 BRIGHT is the sky above us ; a deep 
 bright blue, with only a few snow- 
 white fleecy clouds speckling its 
 surface to show by contrast how 
 very blue it is. A golden glory 
 seems to rest upon the earth, and 
 tint the leaves of the spreading 
 beech ; while those of the oak and 
 the elm and the chestnut are pass- 
 ing from a beautiful purple into 
 many -changing hues of red and 
 brown. The air is bland and warm so warm, 
 that the cattle quit the open sunshine, and retire 
 into the shade of the thick hedgerows ; or stand 
 knee-deep in the waters of the pleasant stream,
 
 10 
 
 A SUMMER NOON. 
 
 that flows with a sound of music across the 
 grassy lea. So warm, that the patient horse 
 looks about with wistful eyes for some place of 
 shelter, and endeavours with restless tail to free 
 
 THE CATTLE SIAM> KNEE-DEEP IN THE PLEASANT STREAM. 
 
 himself from the cloud of gnats that fret him 
 with their tiny stings. So warm, that the 
 butterfly comes forth to enjoy his brief life of 
 sunshine ; and the bee hums merrily from flower 
 to flower, loading himself with sweets. So
 
 THE HARVEST FIELD. 
 
 n 
 
 warm, that the lark and the thrush and the 
 blackbird are full of happiness, and poised in 
 the pure air, or planted on some leafy branch, 
 pour out their thankful hearts to the God of 
 
 THE SUN-BROWN REAPERS. 
 
 Love in continuous strains of melody. So 
 warm, that the sun-brown reapers in yonder 
 field pause very frequently in their useful toil, 
 and wipe the beaded moisture from their tawny 
 brows. So warm that you and I, dear boys
 
 12 GOOD THINGS AND HARD WORDS. 
 
 and girls, may well be content to rest ourselves 
 awhile on this flowery bank, and watch with 
 eager glances the pleasant scene before us. 
 
 I call it a pleasant scene ; and is there one 
 more pleasant in this wide world of ours than a 
 corn-field in the merry autumn-time, when the 
 stalks are bent with the weight of the golden 
 ears? Is there among all the sweet sounds of 
 Nature any sweeter than the sharpening of the 
 reaper's sickle on his ready hone ? Does it not 
 tell us of the infinite goodness of Him who, 
 year after year, causes the earth to bring forth 
 her increase, and feeds the mouth of man with 
 wholesome and abundant food. 
 
 What should we do, I wonder, without the 
 cereals 9 Frederick knits his brows, you see, at 
 so strange a word, which he thinks has some- 
 thing very un-English about it. And, in fact, 
 it is a Latin word made English, and applied to 
 certain grasses which are capable of being con- 
 verted into human food. 
 
 What? Do men live upon grass? 
 
 All kinds of corn are grasses, and when their 
 green blades first shoot above the dark rich soil 
 you would hardly detect them from the common
 
 ABOUT WHEAT AND BARLEY. 
 
 herbage. All kinds of corn are grasses, and 
 all kinds of corn are called cereals. 
 
 Look at yonder field, rippling with quick 
 
 waves of shade and sun- 
 
 shine, like a golden sea. 
 
 It rejoices in a glorious 
 
 crop of wheat ; wheat, the 
 
 most delicious and most 
 
 valuable of all the cereal 
 
 grasses, and which, in most 
 
 civilized countries, is the 
 
 chief article used in making 
 
 bread. In the next field 
 
 flourishes another useful 
 
 cereal grass ; the sharp 
 
 spikes bristling about the 
 
 ears show that it is barley. 
 
 Now the flour yielded by 
 
 barley is not equal in fine- 
 
 ness and whiteness, nor as 
 
 a food, to that which we 
 
 ^ f rom W heat J but 
 
 barley is of no little value, because it can be 
 grown in very cold countries, where its sister 
 cereal will never ripen. In the extreme north 
 
 WHEAT. 
 
 BARLEY.
 
 NORTHERN REGIONS. 
 
 of Europe, where winter reigns for half the 
 year, and the snow gathers about the hills and 
 valleys in deep masses, and month after month 
 
 THE HARVEST. 
 
 the streams are fettered in rigid bonds of ice, 
 barley will grow and thrive, repaying the hus- 
 bandman's labour with a plentiful harvest. 
 And where the skies are too cold for barley,
 
 OA TS AND OA TMEAL. 
 
 and the soil too rich, another cereal grass 
 may be successfully cultivated, I mean oats. 
 It is, as you know, 
 a very graceful plant, 
 its ears drooping 
 from the stalk like 
 fairy-bells, which the 
 lightest wind sets in 
 airy motion. Oats 
 are largely grown in 
 Scotland ; and " oat- 
 meal" for we do 
 not call their pro- 
 duce flour is es- 
 teemed a peculiarly 
 nutritious diet for 
 men as well as cattle. 
 No grain is more 
 valued for feeding 
 horses. The Scotch 
 peasant takes por- 
 ridge at almost every 
 meal. 
 
 The Russians obtain from oats a pleasant 
 drink, which they call quass. The straw is very 
 
 OATS
 
 1 6 DISTRIBUTION OF CORN. 
 
 useful as fodder. The seeds, when they have 
 undergone a certain preparation, are called 
 groats, or grits, and in this state are employed 
 in making gruel. The old name for groats was 
 " grout ; " and long years ago grout was much 
 eaten in England, even by the richest and 
 greatest. An old rhyme runs : 
 
 " King Hardicanute, 'midst Danes and Saxons stout, 
 Caroused on nut-brown ale, and dined on grout." 
 
 Frederick asks me whether wheat, and barley, 
 and oats, grow all over the world. 
 
 No, I answer ; some countries are unsuited 
 for the growth of these cereal grasses, which 
 will only endure a certain degree of heat or cold. 
 For instance, they will not flourish on the frost- 
 bound shores of the Polar Sea, nor on the banks 
 of the steaming rivers that wind their way 
 through Tropical forests. But consider now 
 the mercy and the wisdom of God : 
 
 In some form or other corn grows everywhere. 
 
 From the bleak and barren wastes of Lapland 
 to the sun-scorched plains of Central India, from 
 the great rolling grassy prairies of North 
 America to the muddy swamps of China, from 
 the green valleys of England and the open
 
 CEREALS EVERYWHERE. 
 
 straths of Scotland to the hills and glens of the 
 West Indian Islands, from the lofty table-lands 
 of the mighty Himalaya to the sunny levels of 
 the shore of the Atlantic, corn, in some form or 
 other, may be successfully cultivated. The Scotch 
 or English emigrant has carried with him across 
 the seas the seeds of wheat and barley and oats ; 
 and now in Canada, and Australia, and New 
 Zealand leagues upon leagues of fertile land are 
 enriched with smiling harvests. But in those 
 hot Tropical countries where the sun has a power 
 unknown in our colder lands, and where periods 
 of excessive heat, which scorch and wither every 
 green thing, are followed by weeks of heavy rain, 
 we find another cereal flourishing 
 
 ItlCE. 
 
 Hice, which, for 
 the largest propor- 
 tion of mankind, 
 forms the principal 
 article of food. 
 
 In that grand New 
 World which was 
 made known to 
 Europe by the gen- 
 ius of Columbus, a 
 2 
 
 MlIiET.
 
 i8 
 
 MAIZE AND MILLET. 
 
 cereal called maize, or Indian corn, blooms over 
 its wide plains and in its pleasant valleys. 
 
 In many Tropical countries, as in the north 
 of China and in Hindustan, millet is extensively 
 cultivated ; while far away in the 
 
 MAIZE. 
 
 RYE. 
 
 bleak north of Asia and Europe, in regions 
 too cold for wheat, and on soils too poor and 
 sandy for any other grain, the husbandman sows 
 his fields with rye.
 
 ALLABOUT RICE. 1 9 
 
 Throughout the world, then, we may say, as 
 David said, " Thou," Lord, " preparest them 
 corn, when Thou hast so provided for it ; " 
 Thou preparest corn under the bitter Northern 
 skies, no less tharr under the scorching, burning, 
 Tropical sun. 
 
 Do you remember now the chief cereals, or 
 principal kinds of corn ? 
 
 Wheat, barley, oats, rice, maize, millet, rye. 
 
 The first three of these are so well known to 
 you that I need not attempt to describe them. 
 In reference to the others, I will add a few 
 words. 
 
 Hice .supplies the main food of nearly one- 
 third of the human race ; that is, of fully three 
 hundred millions (300,000,000) of people. It 
 is supposed to have been originally a native of 
 the East Indies, but it is now cultivated in all 
 parts of the globe where heat and moisture are 
 abundant. For it requires something more 
 than heat namely, a plentiful supply of water. 
 And this is the way in which it is grown : 
 
 The field is covered with long and narrow 
 trenches, each trench being about eighteen 
 inches distant from the other. The bottom is
 
 20 HOW IT IS CUL TIVA TED. 
 
 filled with water nearly a foot deep, and in this 
 water the rice seed sown in even rows. After 
 awhile the seeds germinate that is, take root, 
 and put forth a tiny green stalk and the water 
 is then drawn off. But in time a quantity of 
 weeds grow up along with the rice ; and to kill 
 these weeds the field is again flooded with 
 water, and allowed to remain in that state for 
 fifteen or sixteen days. All the weeds being 
 killed, the water is drawn off, and the rice 
 allowed to bask in the warm sunshine until 
 nearly ripe, when, for the third and last time, it 
 is re-deluged with water. 
 
 The cultivation of rice is, therefore, very un- 
 wholesome for the labourers, who, when 
 weeding, are compelled to work up to their 
 knees in mud, and consequently suffer much 
 from ague and fever. 
 
 Now let me tell you the principal countries 
 where rice is produced, and when we return 
 home, you can look them out in the map of the 
 world. You will find that they are all Tropical 
 countries, where there is no winter, but, instead, 
 a season of heavy rains. 
 
 India, China, Cochin China, Siam, Cambodia,
 
 VARIETIES OF RICE. 21 
 
 Burmah, Japan, Egypt, South Carolina, Georgia, 
 Louisiana, and Florida. 
 
 I should add, however, that rice is success- 
 fully cultivated in some parts of Europe, as 
 Lombardy in Italy, and Valencia in Spain. 
 Both these places have hot summers, and are 
 well supplied with water. 
 
 The finest rice comes from Carolina, but I 
 suppose there are at least one hundred and 
 twenty (120) known varieties. Rice in the 
 husk or shell is termed paddy. The Japanese 
 contrive to brew with it a kind of beer, which 
 they call sdki ; the Hindustanese distil from it 
 an intoxicating drink called arrack; and the 
 Chinese make several kinds of rice wine. In 
 our own country, it is chiefly used for broths 
 and puddings and light cakes ; the straw is 
 employed as straw-plait for hats and bonnets. 
 
 Let us now fly across the Atlantic on the 
 wings of fancy, and alight in the broad and 
 apparently boundless plains of North America. 
 
 Look at those tall culms or steins, throwing 
 off leaves nearly two feet in length and three 
 inches in breadth, with the brownish-vellow 
 
 \i 
 
 ears, generally two or three in number, hanging
 
 22 MAIZE AND ITS PRODUCTS. 
 
 just below the middle of the stalk that is the 
 celebrated plant named maize, or Indian corn. 
 In the large varieties the ear is often above a 
 foot long, and as thick as my wrist ; in the 
 smaller kinds, it will measure four or five inches 
 in length. The meal is much used as groats ; 
 but does not make good bread unless mixed 
 with wheat, rye, or barley. When ground and 
 boiled, however, it forms a very nutritious dish 
 called hominy; and its porridge, or mush, is 
 held in high repute in North America. Its 
 starch is almost equal to arrow-root, and forms 
 the basis of the Oswego Flour and Patent 
 Corn Flour now so popular in England. 
 
 Maize will flourish wherever the summer 
 heat is very great ; and has been successfully 
 introduced into the south of Europe, as well as 
 into many Asiatic countries. 
 
 Of millet there are several kinds, for the 
 name is applied to Guinea grass in Africa; to 
 the warra or cheena of Hindustan ; and to the 
 durra, which is also very largely cultivated in 
 the Indian peninsula. In Peru grows the 
 Maize de Guinea, whose seeds, after being dried 
 by heat, are converted into a white and agreeable
 
 VARIETIES OF MILLET. 23 
 
 flour. Polish millet is cultivated by the cot- 
 tagers of Poland, and used in the same way as 
 rice. The Africans have several kinds of 
 millet, all useful for food, such as Uzak, Fundi, 
 and Guinea corn. Then there are the Italian 
 millet, three or four feet high ; and the German 
 millet, which is but a tiny shrub. Common 
 millet is a native of the East Indies, but thrives 
 famously in all warm countries. Its grain, 
 which is remarkably nourishing, measures only 
 an eighth of an inch in length. It is used as 
 groats, or in flour mixed with wheat-flour. All 
 the millets are flowering grasses, and more 
 nearly resemble rice than any other cereal. One 
 sort, imported into England from the north of 
 China, is the seed of a grass called Sugar 
 Sorghe, or Chinese sugar millet, on account of its 
 saccharine or sugary properties. 
 
 Rye, as I have already told you, is principally 
 cultivated in the north of Europe, and in some 
 of the colder districts of Asia. It makes a dark, 
 almost black bread, which the Russian peasants 
 live upon, but which you would think exceed- 
 ingly unpleasant. It is also employed in dis- 
 tilling the spirituous liquor called " Hollands."
 
 24 THE DIVINE BENEFICENCE. 
 
 The varieties are numerous, and some are best 
 fitted for sowing in autumn, others for sowing 
 in spring. The word " rye " means rough or 
 hairy, and its ears are not unlike those of 
 barley, but coarser and larger. 
 
 Thus, then, we see that corn is universally 
 diffused ; that, in some shape or other, it exists 
 all over the world in the bleak north as in the 
 genial south. " By these striking adaptations 
 of different varieties of grain, containing the 
 same essential ingredients, to different soils and 
 climates, Providence has furnished the indis- 
 pensable food for the sustenance of the human 
 race throughout the whole habitable globe ; 
 and all nations, and tribes, and tongues can 
 rejoice together as one great family with the 
 joy of harvest." 
 
 Praise be to thy name, Lord ! For " Thou 
 crownest the year with Thy goodness, and Thy 
 paths drop fatness. The pastures are clothed 
 with flocks ; the valleys also are covered over 
 with corn ; they shout for joy, they also sing." 
 
 How warm the air is this afternoon ! The 
 few snow-white clouds that were sprinkled over
 
 WPIENCE COMES THE SUGAR-CANE? 
 
 the azure heaven have disappeared, and the 
 autumn sun shines full upon the earth. Yet 
 what is this warmth extreme as it seems to us 
 compared with the intense heat of those 
 luxuriant lands where the sugar-cane raises its 
 tall yellow sterns, and waves its long ribbon- 
 shaped foliage. 
 
 Will I tell you 
 about the sugar-cane? 
 Well, as it is a plant 
 of great value and 
 importance, a short 
 account of it cannot 
 fail to interest you. 
 
 First, let me tell 
 you where it grows : 
 in the East Indies, in 
 China, in some parts 
 of the south of Europe, 
 in the warm regions 
 of North America, and in the West Indian Islands. 
 It requires a rich soil and a sunny sky. 
 
 The plant is perennial ; that is, it does not 
 require to be sown every year, but when cut 
 down throws off fresh canes from the root, so 
 
 SUGAB-CANES.
 
 26 A SUGAR PLANTATION. 
 
 that a sugar-plantation lasts without renewal 
 for several years. It has a tall straight stem, 
 from eight to twelve feet high, with many joints, 
 and about one and a half or two inches thick. 
 For two-thirds of its length this stem is filled 
 with a sweet juicy pith, which yields the sub- 
 stance called sugar. The leaves are narrow, 
 and about four feet long ; the flowers form a 
 great pointed cluster, quite three feet in length. 
 
 Now, if Frederick wanted to make a sugar- 
 plantation, and understood his business, he 
 would choose a favourable spot, on the slope 
 perhaps of a gentle hill, or in some sheltered 
 hollow; and after the ground had been tho- 
 roughly ploughed, he would divide it into regu- 
 lar squares, like a gigantic chess-board. Then 
 he would direct his negro servants there are 
 no slaves now either in North America or in 
 the West Indies, except in Spanish Cuba to 
 dig across each square a number of parallel 
 rows, about three feet apart, and in each row 
 the young cane shoots or joints will be planted 
 at intervals of about two feet. 
 
 At the end of twelve or fifteen days, the 
 joints having taken root, the young stem of this
 
 GROWTH OF THE CANES. 
 
 PLANTING THE SUGAR-CANE. 
 
 valuable grass appears above the soil. As soon 
 as the canes are twelve or fourteen inches high,
 
 28 
 
 TRAINING THE PLANT. 
 
 Sambo and Joe and Quashee set to work hoeing 
 or ploughing up the weeds, which would other- 
 
 SUGAB MILL. 
 
 wise draw from the soil the nourishment intended 
 for the plant. This labour will have to be re-
 
 CARRYING TO THE MILL. 29 
 
 peated in four or five months' time, and mean- 
 while the soil is kept well turned up, and if 
 necessary, watered. 
 
 At the end of a year, generally in the 
 autumn time, the cane is found ready for cutting. 
 This operation must always be performed before 
 it flowers, or the blossoms will consume a great 
 quantity of the sugary pith. The cutting is made 
 
 SUGAR MILL INTERIOR. 
 
 a little above the ground, and the stems are after- 
 wards tied in bundles and conveyed to the mill.
 
 30 RA W SUGAR. 
 
 The mill consists of three iron rollers, each 
 three to five tons in weight, standing upright 
 and close to one another. By means of machi- 
 nery they revolve slowly. Passed between these 
 heavy rollers the canes are completely crushed, 
 like a pebble under the wheel of a steam-engine, 
 and the juice, which is of a sweetish taste, and 
 the colour of dirty water, drops into large ves- 
 sels of iron or copper, exposed to a constant 
 heat. The scum that rises to the top is skimmed 
 off, and the remainder passes from one vessel 
 to another, each hotter than the preceding, until 
 it boils furiously. The purified liquor must now 
 be drawn off into a pan of great size, where it 
 boils more slowly, and begins to concentrate or 
 thicken, forming a sort of thick gruel. It is 
 then conveyed into earthen pots, and allowed to 
 cool and crystallize into sugar. In this state it 
 is called " raw sugar," and imported into Great 
 Britain, where sugar-refining forms an important 
 trade. The principal refineries are situated at 
 London, Bristol, and Greenock. 
 
 In the refining process a small quantity of 
 bullock's blood is used, which, rising to the sur- 
 face of the dissolved sugar, carries with it all
 
 FILTERING THE SUGAR JUICE. 
 
 33 
 
 SUGAK BOILING. 
 
 kinds of impurities, so that they can easily be 
 removed by straining them through filters made 
 of a closely woven cotton cloth. The liquor 
 next filtrates slowly through a layer of char- 
 coal, and afterwards being again boiled until it 
 3
 
 34 CONSUMPTION OF SUGAR 
 
 hardens into crystals, is collected in sugar-loaf 
 moulds. It is then ready for use. 
 
 Sometimes the melted sugar, instead of being 
 poured into moulds, is poured over strings, and left 
 to cool slowly. This makes a dainty which most 
 boys and girls are very fond of sugar-candy. 
 Another dainty, the sight of which sets Nelly's 
 mouth watering, is barley-sugar ; that is, refined 
 sugar melted, and pulled out while cooling. 
 Molasses, or treacle, is also a produce of the 
 sugar-cane, being that part of the juice which, 
 owing to its coarseness, will not crystallize into 
 sugar. The syrup which drains from refined 
 sugar during the various processes I have de- 
 scribed, when reboiled constitutes the " golden 
 syrup " which you like so well on your bread 
 and butter. 
 
 We are great sugar-eaters in England ; but 
 the Americans beat us in this respect. It has 
 been calculated that in Great Britain the sugar 
 annually consumed is equal to 30 Ibs. each for 
 every man. woman, and child. In the United 
 States of America it amounts to 40 Ibs. ; while 
 in France it is only 4 Ibs. ; and in Russia only 
 a pound and a half.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 S we have now sauntered long 
 enough about this pleasant corn- 
 field, let us wend our way toward 
 home. If we take the gate on 
 the right, Florence, we shall pass 
 Vl/ through papa's orchard into the 
 
 \Vx i 
 
 garden, and there we can rest 
 
 awhile in the arbour. 
 
 What a profusion of fruit hangs 
 
 around ! Look at the bright 
 scarlet cherries shining like stars among the 
 green leaves ; and those delicious apples, with 
 such a fine blush on the side turned towards the 
 sun ! Observe, I pray you, that God in his 
 goodness not only gives us what is necessary and 
 useful, but also the fruit and the flower to 
 please our taste, to gladden our eye, and to 
 enrich the landscape with bloom and fragrance. 
 The cherry is named from the place where it
 
 CJ1A T ABOUT CHERRIE.S. 
 
 A BASKET OP FRUIT. 
 
 is supposed to have been first cultivated, an 
 Asiatic town, called Cerasus. It was carried 
 from thence to Rome, and spreading over all 
 Italy, was gradually planted in other European 
 countries. It was introduced into England by 
 the Romans. There are now in existence several 
 kinds of cherry, as the hautbois and the black- 
 heart, and every kind as delicious as it is whole-
 
 FRUITS AND JUICES. 
 
 37 
 
 some. Kent is the county where they flourish 
 most ; and in the spring it is a charming sight 
 to see the valleys clothed with the delicate snow- 
 white blossoms. The fruit, besides being used 
 for puddings and desserts, yields a juice which is 
 
 CHERRIES. 
 
 employed in making kirschwasser (or, cherry- 
 water) and ratafia. 
 
 I suppose few countries surpass our own in 
 the beauty and abundance of their orchards, and 
 vet it is worth notice that almost all our fruit-
 
 APPLES AND PEARS. 
 
 trees are of foreign birth. We Lave trained 
 them, however, with so much care and industry, 
 that they attain to greater excellence in this 
 country than in their native lands. 
 
 Apples came originally from Persia ; but I 
 do not think a Persian is equal to an English 
 
 apple ; arid I am sure 
 the Persians cannot 
 brew any liquor so re- 
 freshing and delightful 
 as our Devonshire cider, 
 which, I need hardly 
 tell you, is the fer- 
 mented juice of apples. 
 Ai>PL * The fruit is bruised 
 
 in a stone-trough, and the pulp so obtained 
 collected in hair-cloth bags, and heavily pressed. 
 The juice then runs into a shallow tub, and is 
 stored away in casks to ferment ; after which 
 the clear bright cider is carefully strained off. 
 
 We get the pear from Asia. The best kinds 
 are the Jargonelle and the Bergamot ; but there 
 are more varieties than I should care about 
 repeating. The beverage made from pears is 
 called perry.
 
 THE VELVETY PEACH. 
 
 39 
 
 PEAR. 
 
 Few fruits are superior in delicacy of flavour- 
 to the peach, and it has a soft velvety skin, 
 of rose-hues and 
 gold, which none 
 can fail to admire. 
 In England it is 
 generally trained 
 on walls; but in the 
 south of Europe is 
 cultivated as a 
 small tree ; also in many parts of the East, and 
 in the warmer regions of North and South Ame- 
 rica. The peach 
 orchards of the 
 United States are 
 of immense extent, 
 frequently contain- 
 ing as many as 
 20,000 trees. The 
 peach belongs to 
 the same class or family as the almond, and in leaf 
 and flower the two are much alike. The latter 
 yields a powerful drug called prussic acid, which 
 proves a fatal poison when used in any but the 
 smallest quantities. The nectarine, another 
 
 PEACH.
 
 40 PLUMS AND DAMSONS. 
 
 native of Persia, differs only from the peach in 
 the smooth rind of its fruit. The old Greeks 
 and Romans supposed that their fabled gods 
 drank a wonderfully delicious liquor called 
 nectar, and they were so partial to this variety 
 of the peach that they named it the nectar-fruit, 
 or nectarine, as if it were quite as good as the 
 beverage of their deities. 
 
 NECTAJUNE. PLUMS. 
 
 Frederick says lie likes plums better than 
 peaches. I suspect because he obtains more of 
 the former than of the latter. They are more 
 plentiful, and therefore cheaper. Certainly, the 
 plum is a delicious fruit, and all its varieties 
 damsons, so called because introduced into Eng- 
 land from Damascus, a rich and picturesque
 
 MORE DAINTIES. 41 
 
 city in Syria ; green-gages, magnum-bonums, 
 bullaces, egg plums, Orleans plums are much 
 esteemed for the table. It should be remem- 
 bered that they are a dangerous fruit when eaten 
 in excess. The Latin name for plum is prunus, 
 and dried plums are called prunes. These latter 
 are chiefly imported into England from France; 
 which fertile and sunny country, let me add, 
 also sends us dried apples, under the name of 
 Normandy pippins, while Turkey and the Greek 
 Islands send us dried figs. 
 
 I wonder whether you and Frederick, or any 
 of your companions, when playing at the old 
 
 game of 
 
 " Oranges and lemons, 
 Say the bells of St. Clements," 
 
 ever think from what far countries those useful 
 fruits are brought ? Oranges, lemons, and cit- 
 rons, all three belong to the same tribe or family; 
 that is, though differing in many respects, they 
 are alike in others, as brother differs from sister, 
 and mother from daughter, and yet a certain 
 resemblance exists between them all. 
 
 Oranges were first introduced into Europe 
 from China. The tree is an evergreen, with
 
 42 THE GOLDEN ORANGE. 
 
 oblong acute leaves, among which the golden 
 fruit glitters like yellow lamps. Its flowers are 
 white' and fragrant, and ancient custom has ap- 
 propriated them as a fitting ornament for a 
 bride on her marriage-day. It grows in Eng- 
 land in the open air, except during winter, when 
 it requires protection, but never attains to such 
 excellence here as in the 
 more genial climes of Spain, 
 Portugal, Malta, and the 
 Azores Islands. There are 
 numerous varieties, as you 
 will not fail to recollect : 
 the bitter Seville orange, 
 which we import from Spain, 
 your mamma uses for mar- 
 malade. Its skin supplies a 
 valuable medicine. Red as blood is the pulp 
 of the Malta orange ; the Portugal, or Lisbon 
 orange, is known by its thick peel ; the Ber- 
 gamot yields the favourite scent of that name; 
 the St. Michael's is esteemed for its delicious 
 flavour. 
 
 Both the lemon and the citron are natives of 
 the north of India. The former is extensively
 
 THE ORANGE TREE.
 
 LEMONS AND QUINCES. 45 
 
 cultivated now-a-days in several tropical and sub- 
 tropical countries on account of its many uses. 
 Its acid juice is valuable in the preparation of 
 lemonade, and is also given as a remedy in 
 various feverish complaints. The calico-printers 
 find it of service in their trade, while the rind, 
 or lemon peel, is an article that no good cook 
 can do without. 
 
 The lemon grows in great forests in some 
 parts of Brazil, and it is said the flesh of the 
 cattle which pasture in these woods actually 
 obtains a strong smell of lemons, from their 
 feeding so freely on the fallen fruit. 
 
 In our little garden here we have neither 
 citrons nor quinces. The former closely re- 
 sembles lemons, but are larger, and have a 
 thicker rind. The quince is not much grown in 
 England now, but flourishes in the south of 
 Europe, and obtains its name from Cydonia, in 
 the Island of Crete, whence it was first imported. 
 The Portuguese used quinces for making mar- 
 malade ; and marmalade is simply the Portu- 
 guese word for a quince. 
 
 The strawberry is a British fruit, which grows 
 wild on our flowery banks and in our verdant
 
 4 6 
 
 HO FOR THE STRAWBERRY! 
 
 hedgerows. The wild variety has a sweet 
 peculiar flavour, but is of very small size. Its 
 name is an old Saxon one, and means the 
 " strawing," or " spreading " berry, because it 
 
 QUIUCK. 
 
 grows on the ground, and creeps along it like 
 ivy over a wall. You do not despise straw- 
 berries, I know, Edward. Strawberries and 
 cream, on a hot day, I take to be a dish for a 
 king or a queen either ! Do you like the large 
 kind, called hautboy, or oboe that is, haut bois, 
 two French words for the " high wood " be- 
 cause it was first found on the wooded hills of 
 Hungary ? Every kind, however, has a rich.
 
 THE LATE-LINGERING RASPBERRY. 
 
 47 
 
 full, sugary flavour, and melts in the mouth like 
 snow in the sunshine. 
 
 It will soon be time, I see, to prune and tie 
 up the raspberry canes ; they begin to look 
 
 STRAWBERRY. 
 
 very ragged. Ah, the glory of the garden is 
 nearly past, and fruit, leaf, and blossom will 
 speedily be numbered with the things that 
 have been ! The raspberry lingers long, how- 
 ever, and in the woods you will find the wild 
 plant still bearing fruit. The cultivated rasp- 
 berry consists of many varieties, and the fruit is 
 either red, yellow, or white. It is not only an
 
 GOOSE AND GORSE. 
 
 agreeable addition to our dessert, but yields a 
 pleasant wine, and in raspberry vinegar a pecu- 
 liarly grateful and cooling beverage. 
 
 RASPBERRY. 
 
 But at this rate we shall never get out of the 
 fruit garden. Look at the gooseberry-bushes ; 
 they are still loaded, though I cannot tell you 
 how many ringers have been picking at them 
 day after day, ever since they began to ripen. 
 I suppose you think the name "gooseberry" 
 ha^ something to do with stupidity ; but 
 "goose" is just the same word as "gorse" 
 or " goss," and means " prickly." The plant
 
 A DREAM OF THE SOUTH. 49 
 
 is a favourite one in England, but not a 
 native ; it was imported from Flanders. 
 
 Currants are so ^_ 
 
 called, perhaps, be- 
 cause in shape they 
 are not unlike the 
 dried currants, or dried 
 grapes, which are sold 
 by grocers. They have 
 no relationship to the 
 grape, however, but belong to the prickly berry 
 family. 
 
 Let us now pass through the vinery into the 
 kitchen-garden. Oh, those beautiful purple 
 grapes ! How rich the bloom on every cluster! 
 How graceful the trailing flexible plant, with 
 its broad fantastic leaves and curling tendrils ! 
 Does it not carry your mind over the billowy 
 sea to the sweet shining lands of the South, 
 where the hills are covered with vineyards, and 
 you move forward under arches of leaf and 
 fruit, which screen you from the noonday sun, 
 and fill the air with a perfume all their own*? 
 Just think, too, of all we owe to the vine! 
 
 First, we have the fresh luscious fruit with its 
 
 4
 
 USES OF GRAPES. 
 
 flavour, half sweet, half acid, so grateful to the 
 palate of the invalid. Then, dried in the sun, 
 they are converted into " raisins " and " cur- 
 rants ; " the former so called from a Latin word, 
 
 CURRANTS. 
 
 the latter from Corinth, in Greece, whence we 
 first imported them. The stoneless raisins are 
 known as sultanas, because considered fit for 
 the wife of a sultan ; the finest kinds, used for
 
 WINE AND THE VINE. 
 
 dessert, are so tempting to bees, flies, and other 
 insects, that they have been named muscatels, 
 from musca, which is just the Latin for " a fly." 
 
 GRAPES. 
 
 Then, from the grape-juice, when fermented, 
 we procure wine. Our English grapes, how- 
 ever agreeable to the taste, and none are more 
 so, do not make good wine, which, therefore,
 
 WHA T BRANDY fS MADE OF. 
 
 VINEYARD. 
 
 we are compelled to import from abroad. The 
 different wines are named after the places where 
 they are made. 
 
 From wine we procure brandy, which is 
 " burnt wine " flavoured with peach kernels. 
 
 Look at the rich crimson blossom of yonder
 
 THE BIBLICAL POMEGRANATE. 
 
 S3 
 
 plant. Is it not beautiful ? That is the pome- 
 granate, of which you often read in the Bible, 
 and which in old times appears to have been 
 much more valued than is now the case. It 
 flowers, but will not ripen in England ; in the 
 south of Europe it flourishes vigorously. Its 
 fruit is as large as an orange, with a thick 
 golden rind just slightly tinged with rose on 
 
 POMEGRANATE. 
 
 one cheek, like a maiden's blush. The pulp is 
 sweet, delicate, and very cooling. Do you not 
 think it bears a strange name? Well, it simply 
 means "seeded apple." The word "apple" is 
 used for any ball or round-shaped fruit. We 
 speak of the o&k-apple and the potato-apple.
 
 54 
 
 WHO LIKES PINE-APPLES? 
 
 In the same way we 
 call the fruit of the 
 ananas, which is a 
 native of Tropical 
 America, pine-apples, 
 though they neither 
 grow on pines nor 
 are they shaped like 
 apples. In form, in- 
 deed, they resemble 
 the cones of the pine 
 tree. The ananas 
 was introduced into 
 England nearly two 
 hundred years ago, 
 but will not grow in 
 the open air. The 
 Greek word for 
 " apple " is melon, 
 whence we derive the 
 name of the fruit called 
 " melons." They are 
 shaped like apples, 
 They belong to Eastern 
 countries and to the south of Europe. 
 
 PINE-APPLE. 
 
 MELON. 
 
 but much larger.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 OME now to the kitchen-garden, 
 and see how very attractive it looks, 
 with its stock of all kinds of whole- 
 some vegetables, its beds free from 
 stones or weeds, and its paths kept 
 in such admirable order. 
 
 Now, Frederick, which vegetable 
 of all you can see do you think the 
 most useful? 
 
 The potato ? 1 believe you are 
 right. It is almost as necessary to us now as 
 bread. What would you think of a dinner without 
 a good dish of floury potatoes ? And yet, three 
 hundred years ago, there was scarcely a potato 
 in all England ! This most useful plant, which 
 is a native of Peru, but has long been spread 
 over a great part of America, was brought from 
 Virginia (now one of the United States) by the 
 brave and great Sir Walter Raleigh, in the
 
 56 THE POTATO PLANT. 
 
 reign of James I. It had previously been in- 
 troduced into England by another famous sea- 
 man, Sir Francis Drake, but attracted very 
 little attention. It was then called batata, and 
 for a hundred years thought only good enough 
 
 POTATO PLANT. 
 
 for feeding cattle. All at once its cultivation 
 took a sudden start, and soon spread over the 
 entire kingdom, until every cottager in his 
 little garden set aside a corner for potatoes. 
 It has no roots. The straggling stem which
 
 PRECEPTS AND PEAS. 
 
 57 
 
 grows underground and bears the potato is 
 really what botanists call a tuber. 
 
 It is said that the ground which produces 
 30 pounds of wheat will produce 1000 pounds 
 of potatoes ; but the latter are not nearly so 
 nutritious. 
 
 Allowing, then, that potatoes are the most 
 useful, which would you call the most delicious 
 of vegetables ? 
 
 Green peas. 
 
 Well, I am inclined 
 to agree with you. At 
 all events, it is one of 
 the most graceful. 
 
 The pea, a native of 
 the East, was intro- 
 duced into Europe 
 early in the Middle 
 Ages. Its cultivation 
 now extends over a 
 great part of the 
 known world, and may 
 be successfully under- 
 taken in any climate 
 not subject to Arctic cold or very early winters. 
 
 GREEX PEA.
 
 58 THE BEAN AND THE ONION. 
 
 Peas are removed from the pods and eaten 
 in their fresh green state, or dried and deprived 
 of their husks, and used for pea-soup and pease- 
 pudding. In the latter condition they are sold 
 as split peas. 
 
 All kinds of grain that grow in pods are 
 called pulse. Can you tell me of any other 
 sort of pulse besides peas ? Beans ? Yes ; 
 beans are a variety of pulse, and whether 
 French beans and scarlet runners, which have 
 long narrow pods, or broad beans, whose pods 
 are thick and broad, and not fit for eating, they 
 form a useful and agreeable addition to our 
 stores of vegetable food. 
 
 In speaking of useful vegetables, we must 
 not omit the onion ; and while in the neighbour- 
 hood of an onion-bed, its strong pungent odour 
 will not allow us to forget it. 
 
 It is a bulbous-rooted plant that is, it has 
 a swelling root, round and smooth, like the bulbs 
 of crocuses, snowdrops, and tulips. The bulb 
 is the part generally eaten, though while the 
 plant is young we also use the emerald-green 
 leaves. Its native country is not known ; but 
 it has been cultivated in Egypt and India for
 
 EVERYBODY TO HIS TASTE. 
 
 59 
 
 long, long ages, and thence introduced into 
 Europe and America. There are few civilized 
 
 countries in which , - 
 
 ,*^ \ft.7 
 the onion is not 
 
 valued, and its 
 nutritious proper- 
 ties are really very 
 considerable. The 
 Spanish varieties 
 are usually and 
 justly regarded as 
 the finest, not only on account of their size, 
 but their more delicate flavour. 
 
 How great the variety of vegetables which 
 the all-wise God has created for the behoof and 
 benefit of man! Every taste may be satisfied; 
 every want supplied. We are riot limited to a 
 few kinds, but enjoy an almost boundless choice. 
 Our garden here, like most private kitchen- 
 gardens, is laid out on a small scale ; yet, see 
 how many different plants flourish within its 
 borders all more or less distinguished by their 
 agreeable savour and admirably useful qualities. 
 
 For instance, besides the common onion, there 
 are leeks and shalotes ; if you do not like pars-
 
 6o 
 
 MAKING UP A SALAD. 
 
 nip, you can have asparagus; or, instead of 
 either, you may garnish your table with turnips 
 and carrots. Do you wish for a salad ? There 
 
 \k"i,jLM 
 
 ASPARAGUS. 
 
 CARROT. 
 
 are lettuces, mustard and cress, endive, and 
 celery, to which you may add some slices of the 
 bright scarlet beet-root, though in many parts 
 of Europe sugar is largely extracted from that
 
 TAKE YOUR CHOICE. 
 
 61 
 
 useful plant. Radishes will also lend a zest to 
 your simple meal, and to your bread and butter 
 you will find watercresses a delightful accom- 
 
 RADISH. 
 
 paniment. Cabbages will figure on your dinner- 
 table either as greens, summer-cabbages, 
 Brussels sprouts, sea-kail, broccoli, or cauli- 
 flower. Both the latter are the flower-beds of
 
 62 
 
 MORE ABOUT CABBAGES. 
 
 two different kinds of " kole," or cabbage. 
 Spinach is much relished by many palates ; and 
 
 to others artichokes are 
 decidedly acceptable. 
 
 I must tell you 
 something more about 
 cabbages, however ; 
 they are so valuable 
 and so abundant a vege- 
 table. 
 
 They were well known 
 to the ancients, and 
 very probably it was 
 the Romans who first 
 introduced them into 
 our own country. The 
 Romans called them 
 brassicce, from a Latin 
 word meaning " cut off 
 at the stem ; " and also 
 Caules, from the quality of the stalk, hence the 
 English word cole, or colewort. How largely 
 they made use of them we may infer from a 
 verse by an old Latin poet, who, speaking of 
 cabbages, describes them as, 
 
 SPINACH.
 
 AN OLD SUPERSTITION. 63 
 
 " The plants which o'er the world abundance bring 
 To peasant humble and to haughty king, 
 Cabbage in winter, and green sprouts in spring." 
 
 They cherished some peculiar notions re- 
 specting the supposed sympathies of plants, and 
 were of opinion that some liked and some 
 hated their neighbours. An old Roman writer on 
 natural history, called Pliny, says : " The cole- 
 wort and the vine cherish so deadly a hatred to 
 each other, that if a vine stand near a colewort, 
 you may readily perceive that the former 
 shrinks away from the other ; and yet this wort, 
 which causes the vine thus to retire, if it happen 
 to grow near marjoram, will soon wither and 
 perish in its turn." 
 
 What Pliny thought to be an antipathy 
 between the two plants is easily explained. 
 When two plants are placed side by side that 
 require the same juices from the soil for their 
 support and nourishment, the weaker must 
 yield to the stronger that is, to the one that 
 has the greater power to absorb, or drink up, 
 the valuable moisture. 
 
 The varieties of cabbages, or brassicce, now 
 grown in England are very numerous, as :
 
 6 4 
 
 VARTETIES OF CABBAGE. 
 
 cauliflower, which is said to have come from 
 
 */ 
 
 the island of Cyprus ; broccoli, described as an 
 accidental mixture of the common cabbage and 
 the cauliflower; and sea-kale, which flourishes, 
 
 CAULIFLOWER, 
 
 as its name implies, in the neighbourhood of 
 the sea-coast. 
 
 Do you not think the greatest epicure might 
 find something to please him among such an
 
 TROPICAL PLANTS. 65 
 
 abundance ? Happily, most kinds of vegetables 
 are within the reach of the poor as well as the 
 rich. Certainly the- most valuable are very 
 easily cultivated in any odd corner of ground, if 
 due care be taken, and if the soil be suitable. 
 Potatoes, cabbages, onions, turnips, leeks, let- 
 tuces, and the like, will flourish almost every- 
 where. 
 
 How different a garden would look in a very 
 hot country ! Instead of cabbages and turnips, 
 you would see rare and curious plants whose 
 names you knew not ; and the air, instead of 
 being perfumed with the scent of peas and 
 beans, would smell pungently of spices. Such 
 plants as pepper, turmeric, cloves, and nutmegs, 
 only come to perfection in Tropical lands that 
 is, in countries where the summer is long, and 
 the heat excessive, because the sun is almost 
 always shining above them, 
 
 Pepper, for instance, is the dried fruit of 
 creeping plants, which grow in some islands of 
 the Indian Ocean, in the West Indies, and 
 various parts of South America. 
 
 Common pepper, or black pepper, which cook 
 uses for flavouring her broths and soups, is a 
 
 5
 
 66 
 
 WHITE AND BLACK PEPPER. 
 
 native of the East Indies, and a rambling, 
 climbing plant about twelve feet long, with 
 broad leathery leaves, and an abundance of 
 flowers. The fruit is about the size of a pea, 
 and when ripe, of a bright-red colour. As the 
 plant grows best in the shade, it is therefore 
 
 trained about a 
 tall pole, under the 
 canopy of a leafy 
 tree. It bears fruit 
 in about three or 
 four years. The 
 berries when gath- 
 ered are spread on 
 mats, and separated 
 from their stems or 
 spikes by rubbing 
 with the hands or 
 treading with the feet, after which they are ex- 
 posed to a current of air to clean them. Black 
 pepper consists of the berries thus dried and 
 become black and wrinkled. White pepper is 
 the seed freed from the skin and fleshy part of 
 the fruit by being soaked in water and then 
 rubbed. 
 
 PEPPER.
 
 NUTMEG AND MACE. 
 
 67 
 
 Cayenne pepper is obtained from the capsi- 
 cum plant, which grows in Cayenne, in Guiana. 
 Chillico, which are used in sauces 
 and as a pickle, are also a kind 
 of capsicum. 
 
 Where do nutmegs come from? 
 
 At one time the nutmeg tree 
 grew only in the Banda Islands ; 
 but now it is successfully culti- 
 vated in several Tropical regions, / 
 as at Brazil, Jamaica, Trinidad, 
 Madagascar, and in India. It is CAWUOUH. 
 about twenty-five feet high, with oblong leaves 
 and scanty flowers, the fruit of the size and 
 appearance of a 
 
 roundish pear, and, 
 when ripe, of a 
 fine golden yellow 
 colour. If you 
 were to cut open 
 one of the fruit, 
 you would find in- 
 side it a large hard 
 kernel, which is the nutmeg, wrapped in a thin 
 flaky substance called mace. 
 
 NUTMEG.
 
 68 WHENCE COMES YOUR DINNER ? 
 
 Did you ever think what a number of 
 countries supply you with your dinner? 
 
 You thought your dinner was bought and 
 cooked here in England ? Yes ; but before it 
 could be bought or cooked, some parts of it 
 must have travelled over leagues of land and 
 water. 
 
 Just consider for a moment. Your beef is 
 English, I admit ; but the turkey at the other 
 end of the table originally came from Asia. 
 Your salt and mustard are English ; but your 
 pepper has crossed the seas from Jamaica. 
 Your bread is English ; but the yeast which 
 helped to make it came from Germany. 
 
 Papa takes a glass of wine with his dessert. 
 "Well, it was made at Xeres, in Spain, and is 
 therefore called sherry. He gives you an 
 orange imported from some Atlantic islands 
 called the Azores, or a branch of muscatel 
 raisins, which ripened under the sun of Turkey. 
 The olives are the fruit of a beautiful green 
 tree that flourishes in Spain and the north of 
 Italy ; they were brought over to England 
 pickled in salt and water. Your salad oil has 
 been pressed out of Spanish and Italian olives,
 
 WHEREVER THE WIND BLOWS. 
 
 69 
 
 as you may know by its names, olive oil, Lucca 
 oil, Florence oil. These purple grapes, which 
 look so luscious and tempting, were plucked 
 from a vineyard in the south of France. The 
 
 OLIVE TREE AND FRUIT. 
 
 butter and the cheese are English produce, but 
 they owe their reddish tint to a colouring stuff 
 called annatto, which is obtained from the seeds 
 of a Tropical plant a plant that flourishes in 
 the East and West Indies.
 
 70 FARINACEOUS FOOD. 
 
 Look at those buns. They were made of 
 English flour ? True ; but they are flavoured 
 with saffron, and saffron is the dried flowers of 
 the saffron crocus, which grows in Spain. The 
 word " saffron " is Arabic, and means yellow ; 
 " crocus," Greek, and means " thread." Saf- 
 fron looks very much like small pieces of 
 yellow thread. 
 
 You are fond, I know, of blanc-mange made 
 with arrowroot ; but arrowroot is the farina, 
 or flour, of a West Indian plant ; and tapioca, 
 which cook works up into such insubstantial 
 puddings, is the produce of the milky juice of 
 a South American plant the cassava which 
 is for the South Americans what the bread-fruit 
 tree is for the Polynesians, yams for the West 
 Indians, or wheat for us English people the 
 " staff of life." 
 
 Now, if you reflect a little, you will see that 
 your dinner has come from a great number of 
 countries : Turkey, Spain, France, Italy, Ja- 
 maica, India, South America ; and I have 
 mentioned but a few of the dishes generally 
 placed on a gentleman's table. 
 
 If you partake of boiled leg of mutton, you
 
 EXPOR TS A ND IMPOR TS. 7 1 
 
 ask for caper sauce. Where will you get your 
 capers ? They are the buds of a small creep- 
 ing plant, which is cultivated in several Euro- 
 pean countries, as well as in Asia and Africa. 
 The finest kind grow in the south of France, 
 and they are pickled before being exported to 
 England. 
 
 You know the meaning of the word exported 9 
 It signifies " sent out of," and imported, " brought 
 into." 
 
 We speak of the " Exports " and " Imports " 
 of a country. The imports are brought from 
 other lands, and consist of articles which we 
 ourselves do not grow or manufacture ; the 
 exports are articles of our own growth or 
 produce, which we dispose of to foreign 
 countries. 
 
 I spoke of the olive a minute or two ago. 
 It is a tree of singular beauty, frequently forty 
 feet high, and attains to a venerable age. Its 
 leaves resemble those of a willow ; are of a dark 
 deep green above and a whitish-gray beneath. 
 The fruit is greenish, whitish, violet, or even 
 black, and about the size of a pigeon's egg. 
 The wood takes a beautiful polish, and being
 
 72 WHA T IS TEA ? 
 
 marked and spotted in a very handsome manner, 
 is much used for ornamental work. 
 
 The olive tree was greatly valued by the 
 ancient Greeks, and a crown of olive leaves 
 was the reward which they bestowed on any 
 supremely deserving person. An olive branch 
 was also the emblem of peace. 
 
 It flourishes abundantly in Palestine and 
 other parts of the East, and there occur numer- 
 ous allusions to it in the Bible. 
 
 We have been talking about Dinner, and 
 how we had to resort to foreign countries if we 
 would set out our table comfortably. But if we 
 could do without their help at dinner-time, we 
 certainly could not dispense with it at tea or 
 breakfast. 
 
 We must send to China or India for our tea. 
 
 What is tea? 
 
 A very graceful shrub, which grows spon- 
 taneously that is, without cultivation in the 
 hilly parts of China, and attains to a height of 
 four or six feet. Its principal product is its 
 leaves, which are of a beautiful dark green on 
 the upper side, and a pale green on the lower.
 
 WHERE IT GROWS. 
 
 73 
 
 Having found out its valuable qualities some 
 hundreds of years ago, the Chinese have ever 
 since cultivated 
 it carefully, and 
 many other na- 
 tions seeing in 
 it an important 
 source of nation- 
 al wealth, it has 
 been introduced 
 into East India, 
 Brazil, the Mau- 
 ritius, and other 
 genial regions. 
 The European 
 climate is too 
 cold and uncer- 
 tain to favour 
 its growth. 
 
 The use of tea as a beverage was introduced 
 into Europe about the middle of the seventeenth 
 century. It was at first regarded with much sus- 
 picion, and ridicule was lavishly poured out upon 
 all tea-drinkers, but it gradually made its way 
 until the tea-pot became the ornament of every 
 
 TEA.
 
 74 VARIETIES OF TEA. 
 
 quiet home, and old age and youth, the rich 
 and the poor, learned to love the cup that cheers 
 but not inebriates. 
 
 The grocers sell you numerous varieties 
 Gunpowder, Hyson, Congo, Pekoe, Souchong, 
 and the like but they all come from the same 
 plant, and differ only in their mode of prepara- 
 tion, and in the condition of the leaves at the 
 time they are plucked. 
 
 The Chinese gather three crops every year : 
 the first, in spring, yields the finest quality ; 
 the second takes place a month later ; and the 
 third when the leaves are fully grown. 
 
 As soon as the leaves have been picked from 
 the plant, they are wetted and dried several 
 times in succession the drying being effected 
 on hot plates of iron, which causes them to roll 
 up and assume a crumpled form. They are 
 afterwards placed on a table and rolled with the 
 hands. Their colour is then a dull green. 
 
 For black teas, the leaves are spread out in 
 the air for some time after they are gathered ; 
 they are then tossed about till they lose their 
 stiffness ; are roasted for a few minutes ; are 
 rolled ; again exposed to the air for some hours in
 
 CULTIVATING THE TEA PLANT. 
 
 77 
 
 a moist, soft condition ; and, lastly, dried slowly 
 over charcoal fires until the black colour is 
 fairly brought out. 
 
 TEA DRYING. 
 
 The tea farms, we are told, lie mostly in the 
 north of China, and are generally of small size. 
 They require great attention, as the plant only 
 thrives properly in a rich or well manured soil. 
 The spaces between the shrubs, which are four 
 feet apart, require to be kept in excellent order, 
 and perfectly free from weeds. The soil, too, 
 must be thoroughly drained.
 
 78 COFFEE AND ITS VARIETIES. 
 
 If we obtain our tea from China and India, 
 in the hilly districts where a dry sunny climate 
 prevails, we must go for coffee to Tropical re- 
 gions with a moist atmosphere, such as Arabia, 
 Abyssinia, Brazil, and the West Indies. 
 
 The five principal varieties are 
 
 Mocha, a small gray bean, which comes from 
 Arabia ; Java, or East Indian, a large yellow 
 bean, which comes from Hindustan ; Jamaica, a 
 greenish bean, not so large as the Java, whicli 
 comes from the West Indies ; Surinam, a very 
 large bean, imported from the South American 
 coast ; and Bourbon, a pale yellow bean, brought 
 from the Island of Bourbon, in the Pacific 
 Ocean. 
 
 The coffee-tree was originally a native of 
 Arabia and Abyssinia. It is pyramidal in shape, 
 about ten feet high, with branches spread out 
 horizontally almost to the ground. Its leaves 
 are leathery, shining, and evergreen ; the flowers 
 small and snow-white, with a delicious perfume. 
 When ripe the fruit is of a deep scarlet colour, 
 and the Arabians call the seeds bunns, a word 
 which we have corrupted into . beans, though 
 they are no more like beans than they are like
 
 COCOA AND CHOCOLATE. 
 
 79 
 
 berries. Before being made use of they are 
 roasted, and ground into powder. 
 
 Is there any other breakfast beverage, I 
 
 COFFEE. 
 
 wonder, for which we are indebted to foreign 
 countries ? 
 
 Cocoa and chocolate, you suppose. 
 
 Yes ; but both these are the produce of one 
 and the same tree, the Theobroma cacao can
 
 8o 
 
 A TREE WITH A HARD NAME. 
 
 you recollect the name? which grows in the 
 warm districts of South America and the West 
 Indies. It is but a little tree, seldom growing 
 
 COFFEE PLANTATION. 
 
 taller than an apple or pear-tree, but it divides 
 into many branches. The fruit is from six to 
 eight inches long, yellow, except on the side 
 next the sun, which wears a rosy tint, and is 
 shaped like a cucumber. The rind is thick and
 
 BEANS AND NIBS. 
 
 81 
 
 warty, the pulp sweetish and not unpleasant. 
 In this pulp lie numerous almond-like seeds, 
 with a thin, pale, 
 and reddish-brown 
 shell, enclosing a 
 bitter, dark-brown, 
 oily, aromatic ker- 
 nel. 
 
 We call things 
 aromatic when they 
 
 CACAO POD. 
 
 give out a pleasant 
 
 pungent smell, like nutmeg, cinnamon, carraway, 
 
 or other spices. 
 
 The seeds I speak of are the cocoa beans sold 
 in our shops ; when bruised and broken up into 
 small pieces, they are called cocoa nibs. To 
 make chocolate, they are reduced to a fine paste, 
 and mixed with spices and pounded sugar. 
 The word is Mexican (chocolatl, from cAoco, 
 cocoa, and lotl, water). Chocolate was first 
 introduced into Europe about 1520. 
 
 The cacao-tree attains its full -growth in 
 seven or eight years, and generally yields two 
 crops annually. The fruit, when gathered, is 
 allowed to ferment for five days, either in heaps 
 
 6
 
 82 
 
 A VALUABLE BEVERAGE. 
 
 on the ground, or in earthen vessels. It is 
 then opened by the hand, and the seeds dried 
 by the sun or by fire. 
 
 Chocolate, I may tell you, is not only a very 
 agreeable but a very wholesome beverage. It 
 contains a great deal of nutriment that is, of 
 feeding matter ; and for breakfast or tea, is now 
 in great request. I wish it was cheaper, for the 
 poor would find it a valuable addition to their 
 scanty stock of comforts. 
 
 ;
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 cacao you must not confuse 
 with the cocoa-nut tree, for not 
 the slightest point of resemblance 
 exists between them, except that 
 both flourish best in warm coun- 
 tries. The latter is one of the 
 numerous species of palms which 
 abound in the Tropical parts of 
 the world, and which are all 
 known by their tall straight 
 trunk, and crown of broad long leaves. 
 
 The cocoa-nut tree is generally of the thick- 
 ness of a man's body, and from sixty to one 
 hundred feet high. The leaves droop with a 
 curve, and measure from twelve to twenty feet 
 in length. The nuts grow in clusters of five 
 to fifteen, and as many as eighty or a hundred 
 nuts will be found on one tree. 
 
 I suppose the cocoa-nut tree is the most use-
 
 84 A COLLECTION OF UTILITIES. 
 
 ful in the world, and it is really astonishing 
 how valuable is every part of it. Nothing of it 
 is thrown away. 
 
 Take, first, the fruit: 
 The fibre, or hairy-like substance, of its husk, 
 or outer shell, makes excellent cordage, brooms, 
 and brushes. 
 
 The shell is fashioned into ladles, cups, and 
 
 goblets. 
 
 The kernel affords a 
 nutritious food ; the 
 oil pressed out of it 
 is used in manufac- 
 turing candles, or as a 
 lamp oil, or to anoint 
 
 COCOA NUT. 
 
 is a refreshing beverage. 
 
 The sap, when fermented, gives a liquor 
 called patna wine, and a spirit called arrack. 
 The juice is frequently boiled down to yield sugar. 
 
 The dried leaves are used for thatch, and 
 woven into screens, mats, baskets, and sails. 
 
 When young, the middle part of the stem is 
 sweet and eatable ; the topmost bud, or palm 
 cabbage, is relished as a great delicacy.
 
 COCOA-NUT TREE.
 
 INSTANCE OF DIVINE GOODNESS. 87 
 
 The wood is very hard, and takes a beautiful 
 polish. 
 
 I do not wonder that you open your eyes so 
 wide, Frederick. It never occurred to you that 
 any one tree could serve such numerous pur- 
 poses. And in this we may see the goodness and 
 wisdom of God ; for where the cocoa-nut thrives 
 best, few other trees are found, and the inhabi- 
 tants of those distant islands which were its 
 native birth-place must consequently have suf- 
 fered much distress but for the manifold useful- 
 ness of this famous tree. 
 
 A very clever writer has put this fact before 
 us in a striking and impressive manner. He 
 says, 
 
 " Imagine a traveller passing through one of 
 those countries, situated beneath a glowing sky, 
 where shade and coolness are seldom to be 
 enjoyed ; and habitations, in which to obtain the 
 rest so needful and so welcome to the traveller, 
 are only to be met with at long intervals. 
 Weary and sick at heart, the poor wayfarer at 
 length descries a modest hut, surrounded by 
 trees with straight and lofty stems, each stem 
 crowned by a gigantic tuft or crest of great
 
 88 A STORY WITH A MEANING. 
 
 leaves some upright and others drooping 
 the whole giving a peculiar character and air 
 of beauty to the scene. 
 
 " At the spectacle, the traveller's spirits re- 
 vive ; summoning up all his energies, he hurries 
 towards the cabin, and is soon beneath its 
 hospitable roof. He expects to obtain nothing 
 but repose, and a shelter from the burning sun ; 
 but he soon finds himself mistaken. His host 
 makes him welcome, provides him with a seat, 
 and perceiving that he is athirst, offers him a 
 sourish drink : it refreshes his parched tongue 
 like nectar. 
 
 " After he has rested himself awhile, the 
 Indian invites him to share his meal. Various 
 meats are served up before him in a brown- 
 looking vessel, smooth and glossy ; there is 
 also a supply of wholesome wine of a particu- 
 larly agreeable flavour. Towards the close of 
 the repast he is provided with a delicious 
 dessert, and is made to taste some excellent 
 spirits. Wondering and amazed, the traveller 
 addresses his host : ' Whence/ he says, 
 1 whence, in this desolate country, do you 
 obtain such a variety of provisions and liquors ? '
 
 MANY THINGS IN ONE. 89 
 
 " ' I have but one resource,' replies the 
 Indian. 
 
 " ' And what may that be, for it seems in- 
 exhaustible ? ' 
 
 " ' My cocoa-nut tree,' is the answer. 
 
 ' ' What! a cocoa-nut tree? Wine, spirits, 
 sweets, meat can you procure all from a single 
 tree ? ' 
 
 " ' Yes : the water which I offered to you on 
 your arrival I draw from the fruit before it 
 ripens, and some of the nuts which contain it 
 weigh three or four pounds each. 
 
 " ' The almond, whose flavour you so much 
 admired, is the mature fruit. 
 
 " ' The milk, whose taste was so pleasant to 
 your palate, I also draw from the nut ; this 
 cabbage, which you found so delicate, was the 
 top of the palm tree but I rarely indulge in 
 so great a treat, because the tree from which 
 the cabbage is cut dies shortly afterwards. 
 
 " ' The wine in which you did me the honour 
 to drink my health was also furnished by the 
 cocoa-nut tree. To procure it, I make an in- 
 cision into the spathe, or envelope, of the 
 flowers, and immediately a white liquor issues,
 
 WHAT WILL fJE DO WITH IT? 
 
 which is gathered into pro- 
 per vessels, and called palm 
 wine. Exposed to the sun 
 it turns sour, and is converted 
 into vinegar. 
 
 " ' By a process of dis- 
 tilling, I make the capital 
 brandy with which you fin- 
 ished off your repast. The 
 sap supplied the sugar which 
 sweetened our preserves. 
 
 " ' The dishes, bowls, and 
 utensils we have made use 
 of were all fashioned from 
 the shell of the nut.' 
 
 " 'What a wonderful tree! ' 
 exclaims the traveller. 
 
 " ' But I have not yet 
 done. This hut, under whose 
 roof we are sheltered, I owe 
 entirely to this useful palm. 
 With its wood I have con- 
 structed its sides ; with its 
 TAP,.,HO THE PA L M. leaves, dried and plaited, 
 have formed the roof; these leaves, woven
 
 THE DATE PALM. 91 
 
 into an umbrella, protect me from the sun 
 in my walks ; and their filaments, properly 
 treated, provide me with clothes. These mats, 
 useful for so many purposes, are also manufac- 
 tured from them. The sifter which you behold 
 was ready made to my hand in that part of the 
 tree whence the leaves issue; woven together, the 
 leaves may be used as sails for ships ; the kind 
 of fibre enveloping the fruit is excellent caulking 
 for their seams, and makes excellent thread, and 
 all kinds of cord and cables. Finally, the oil 
 that seasoned some of our dishes, and that which 
 now burns in my lamp, is pressed out of the 
 fresh kernel.' ' 
 
 Another kind of palm, found in the dry sandy 
 deserts of Arabia and Egypt, is scarcely less 
 remarkable in this respect. I mean the date 
 palm. 
 
 I shall give you a description of it from an 
 old writer and traveller, Pococke. You know 
 what its fruits are like, for you have eaten them 
 frequently. 
 
 After being planted, it is three or four years 
 before much of it appears above the ground.
 
 9 2 
 
 A DELICA TE FOOD. 
 
 If the top is cut off, with the boughs springing 
 from it, the young bud and the ends of the 
 
 DATE PALM. 
 
 tender boughs form a delicate food, something 
 like chestnuts, but much finer, and sold very 
 dear.
 
 TURNING COMMON THINGS TO USE. 93 
 
 The boughs are of a grain like cane ; and 
 when the tree grows larger, a great number of 
 stringy fibres seem to stretch out from the 
 boughs on each side, crossing each other in 
 such a manner as to form a sort of bark like 
 close net-work ; and this the natives spin out 
 with the hand, and with it make cords of all 
 sizes, which are mostly used in Egypt. They 
 also make of it a sort of brush. 
 
 Of the leaves they make mattresses, baskets, 
 and brooms ; and of the branches all kinds of 
 cage-work, as well as square baskets for pack- 
 ing, that serve for many uses instead of boxes. 
 The ends of the boughs that grow next to the 
 trunk, being beaten and pounded like flax, 
 the fibres separate, and, when tied together 
 at the narrow end, serve excellently for 
 brooms. 
 
 These boughs do not fall off of themselves in 
 many years, even after they are dead, as they 
 die after five or six years ; but, as they are of 
 great use, the natives commonly cut them every 
 year, leaving the ends of them on the tree, 
 which strengthens it very much. When, after 
 many years, they drop off, the whole tree is
 
 94 
 
 FRUIT OF THE DA TE. 
 
 weakened by their loss, and frequently over- 
 thrown by the wind. 
 
 The palm tree grows very high, in one 
 straight stem, and has this peculiarity, that the 
 heart is the softest and least durable portion, 
 the outer parts being the most solid ; so that 
 when the Arab builds his house, he generally 
 uses the trees entire, or divides them only into 
 two parts. 
 
 The fruit of the date, when fresh, eats well 
 roasted, and also prepared as a sweetmeat ; it 
 
 CLUSTER OF DATES. 
 
 is esteemed of a hot nature, and as it comes in 
 during the winter, being ripe in November, 
 Providence seems to have designed it as a
 
 ITS VALUE AND IMPORTANCE. 95 
 
 warm food, during the cold season, to comfort 
 the stomach. 
 
 Thus far our old writer and traveller, Pococke. 
 I may add that the date tree, to the Arabs, is 
 even more important than wheat to us, and if 
 it were at any time to fail, millions of our 
 fellow-creatures would perish of famine. In 
 Egypt, in Arabia, in Persia, in Barbary, and 
 the countries bordering on the Great African 
 Desert, dates form the principal food, and date 
 palms the principal wealth of the people. 
 Cakes of dates, pounded and kneaded together 
 until they become so solid as only to be cut 
 with a hatchet, are the provision which the 
 traveller takes with him on his long journey 
 through the barren and rocky Sahara. 
 
 Such is the date palm. The traveller, 
 floating slowly along the great Egyptian river, 
 gazes with admiring eyes 'on its slender 
 shapely trunk and emerald-green crown, as 
 tree after tree is lit up by the beams of the 
 rising or setting sun ; and he thinks, perhaps, 
 of the days when Moses meditated in their 
 grateful shadow, or refreshed himself with their 
 pleasant fruit. It is, however, the peculiar
 
 96 TWO GREAT MENTAL GIFTS. 
 
 tree of the desert, and the hearts both of master 
 and of slave are glad when they see from afar, 
 standing out clearly and distinctly against the 
 hot cloudless sky, the tall groves of palm that 
 tell of the presence of some silent pool or of 
 the flow of noisy waters. 
 
 It is pleasant is it not ? while sitting in 
 this cool leafy arbour, under an English sky, to 
 carry our thoughts across the wide seas and 
 the distant lauds to the wondrous region of the 
 great stony desert, or the rich glowing forests 
 of the Tropics. What is it enables us to do 
 so ? Memory and imagination ! And surely 
 these powers of the mind, which thus conquer 
 time and space, are among the greatest and 
 most marvellous gifts of God to man ! Me- 
 mory and imagination ! Yes, these are the 
 wings which bear us up while we traverse the 
 valleys and the mountains, the broad plains and 
 the rolling rivers, to gaze upon ever fresh 
 scenes of beauty, majesty, and awe ! 
 
 Let us, then, take another flight. Frederick, 
 do you feel strong enough ? 
 
 AYhat do you say? "It is all nonsense, uncle."
 
 MAKING A LITTLE PICTURE. 97 
 
 No nonsense, but absolute fact. Just now I 
 fancied myself in a wide sandy wilderness, with 
 a burning sun above, and not a drop of water 
 near to quench my thirst or cool my parched lips. 
 And looking across the glaring sand, I thought 
 I saw the forms of some tall trees sharply 
 defined against the sky, and I knew they must be 
 palm trees. Then iny soul rejoiced, for wher- 
 ever the palm tree grows, water will be found. 
 
 Well, now I will picture to myself a little island 
 in the great South Sea. All around it runs a 
 ring of coral, broken here and there by little 
 channels of deep blue water, through one of 
 which T paddle in a light canoe, and reaching 
 the shore, contrive to effect a landing. Let us 
 look around. The scene is charming, but very 
 strange. There are hills and valleys and 
 plains, as in our own dear land, yet they look 
 very different to ours, because covered with 
 trees and shrubs, with plants and grasses, sucli 
 as we have never seen before. What gorgeous 
 blossoms ! What broad rich leaves ! What 
 tall magnificent ferns ! How soft and green 
 the turf on which we tread, and how delicious 
 the fragrance that fills the air ! There are deep
 
 98 GOD FIRST, MAN NEXT. 
 
 shady woods before us, and on either hand 
 spread miles of luxuriant pasture, but none of 
 those fields of wheat and bearded barley which 
 enrich the landscapes of England and Scotland. 
 But if you look more closely you will see that 
 wheat and barley are not needed in this fairy 
 island. Yonder trees you will surely recognize : 
 yes, it is the cocoa-nut, which supplies the 
 islanders with an inexhaustible store of whole- 
 some food. 
 
 In many a leafy southern isle, 
 
 Girdled with sunny seas, 
 Which, like a happy infant, smile. 
 
 When stirred by summer's breeze, 
 
 In pitiless wastes of desert sand, 
 
 Which scorch the genial seed 
 The palms in blest abundance stand 
 
 To succour human need! 
 
 Where'er adventurous man has trod, 
 
 His Maker goes before ; 
 We find the mercy of our God 
 
 Fold round us more and more ! 
 
 In the islands of the Pacific Ocean and 
 Indian Archipelago grows another tree remark- 
 able for its usefulness. I have already alluded 
 to it the Bread-fruit tree but I think you will 
 be glad to learn something more about it. Its
 
 WHAT TREE IS THIS? 
 
 99 
 
 fruit supplies the chief food of the natives of 
 those regions ; its inner bark, nearly all their 
 
 BREAD-FRUIT TREE. 
 
 clothing ; its timber, their huts, furniture, and 
 canoes ; its milky juice, their daily beverage.
 
 too THE BREAD-FRUIT TREE. 
 
 It is a very slender tree, but grows to a 
 stature of fifty feet, often without throwing off 
 a single branch for half that height. Its leaves 
 are long, glossy, and dark green. The fruit is 
 roundish, about the size of a child's head, and 
 covered with a roughish rind, marked in small 
 square or lozenge-shaped divisions. When 
 fully ripe, its colour is a rich yellow. It hangs 
 to the branches by a short thick stalk, gener- 
 ally in clusters of two or three together. 
 
 The fruit is gathered before it is quite ripe, 
 when the pulp is white, mealy, and doughy, 
 like new bread. It is cut into three or four 
 pieces, and the core taken out ; a hole is dug 
 in the earth, and some red-hot stones placed at 
 the bottom of it. These are covered with a 
 layer of green leaves, upon which lies a layer 
 of the fruit ; then another of hot stones ; and 
 leaves and fruit alternately, until the hole is 
 nearly filled ; when leaves and earth, some 
 inches thick, are spread over the whole, and 
 the fruit allowed to remain untouched for about 
 half an hour. 
 
 ' When roasted sufficiently the outside appears 
 nicely browned the inside, white and pulpy,
 
 FIG, OR NO FIG? 101 
 
 like the crumbs of a new loaf. It has little 
 taste, but is exceedingly nutritious. 
 
 Shall we come back again to this pleasant 
 arbour ? Yet no ; let us take one more flight 
 in Tropical climes. Do you see yonder im- 
 mense tree, or rather mass of trees, which seem 
 like a labyrinth of shady alleys, or the ave- 
 nues in an old ancestral park ? That is a fig- 
 tree. 
 
 Frederick says nothing, but his looks mean 
 much. They mean : " Were I not a respectful 
 and polite young gentleman, I should say, / don't 
 believe you, uncle. Is there not a fig-tree 
 trained against yonder garden-wall ? Have I 
 not often noticed its branches, clothed with short 
 hairs, and its long deeply-marked leaves, and its 
 purple pear-shaped fruit? And yet you speak 
 of a fig-tree resembling a number of shady 
 alleys ! Pooh ! The fig is more like a shrub 
 than a tree." 
 
 True, Master Frederick, and yet there flour- 
 ishes in India another arid a far grander species 
 of fig-tree, called the banyan, one of which will 
 cover a space sufficient to contain seven thou- 
 sand (7000) persons ! It bears a rich scarlet
 
 THE MIGHTY BANYAN. 
 
 fruit, like a couple of ripe cherries, and it yields 
 so many other valuable products, and is so 
 
 BANYAN. 
 
 grand and gorgeous in itself, that the Hindus 
 regard it with especial admiration.
 
 SHOOTS AND ROOTS. 103 
 
 The reason it extends over such a vast surface 
 is simply this : its branches grow downwards, 
 take root in the ground, and in their turn be- 
 come small trees ; so that one trunk will some- 
 times be surrounded by as many as three hun- 
 dred and fifty stems (350), until it resembles a 
 veteran captain in the midst of his soldiers. 
 Both the parent tree and its offspring live for 
 ages, 
 
 " It is a goodly sight to see 
 That venerable tree, 
 Far o'er the lawn irregularly spread. 
 Fifty straight columns prop its lofty head ; 
 And many a long depending shoot 
 
 Seeking to strike its root, 
 Straight, like a plummet, grows towards the ground. 
 
 " Nor weeds, nor briars, deform the natural floor ; 
 And through the leafy copse which bowers it o'er 
 
 Come gleams of chequered light. 
 So like a temple doth it seem, that there 
 A pious heart's first impulse should be prayer." 
 
 The Baobab is called by botanists the 
 Adansonia digitata, because it was discovered 
 on the Senegal, in West Africa, by a French 
 botanist named Michel Adanson, and because 
 its leaves are digitate, that is, divided like 
 fingers-. 
 
 It is the largest known tree in the world. I
 
 1 04 MONKE Y BREA D. 
 
 do not mean that it is the loftiest for in height 
 it is surpassed by many but that it possesses 
 the most colossal trunk, often measuring from 
 90 to 100 feet in girth or circumference. Its 
 branches are as thick as our English forest- 
 trees, and frequently 70 feet long, while they 
 form a hemispherical head 'of 120 to 150 feet 
 in diameter,* like a dome or canopy of foliage. 
 Its flowers are white and exceedingly large ; 
 they are attached to drooping stems or flower- 
 stalks about three feet long. 
 
 The trunk of the baobab is rugged, and rent 
 into wide furrows, which supply securely-shel- 
 tered retreats for sheep and other animals. 
 The branches, as may be supposed from their 
 immense length, extend over a vast area of 
 ground ; and the fruit are suspended from their 
 nether surface, clothed with a very rich, deep 
 sea-green, downy substance, which induced 
 Captain Clapperton, the traveller, to compare 
 them to " so many velvet purses." The 
 popular English name for them is " Monkey 
 Bread ; " because they are much relished by 
 
 * Do you know what is meant by the word diameter 1 ! T;ike a stick, 
 and run it through an orange ; the stick will represent the diameter of 
 the orange, so far as it is contained within the fruit.
 
 MORE ABOUT THE BAOBAB. 105 
 
 the monkeys, who hide themselves among the 
 thick foliage, and gambol merrily from bough 
 to bough. 
 
 The African savages make daily use of the 
 dried leaves of the baobab. They mix them 
 with their food, for the purpose of reducing 
 their excessive perspiration, and counteracting 
 the ardour of their burning climate. 
 
 The fruit of the baobab, says the author of 
 the " Vegetable World," is eatable ; its flesh 
 is sweet, and of a pleasant flavour ; the juice, 
 when extracted and mixed with sugar, forms a 
 beverage very useful in the putrid and pestilen- 
 tial fevers of the country. The fruit is trans- 
 ported into the eastern and southern parts of 
 Africa, and the Arabs convey it to the countries 
 adjoining Morocco, whence it finds its way into 
 Egypt.* The negroes take a portion of the 
 damaged fruit and the woody bark, and burn 
 them for the sake of the ashes, from which, 
 with the help of palm oil, they manufacture 
 soap. A still more curious use is made of the 
 trunk of the ba*obab ; they expose upon it, or 
 
 * Our young readers are requested to look out on their maps all the 
 places mentioned in these pages.
 
 106 GRA VES FOR SORCERERS. 
 
 rather, within it, the bodies of their bards, and 
 of others for whom they consider interment in 
 the earth unfitting. 
 
 They pick out a baobab whose trunk has 
 been already attacked and hollowed out by 
 insects or fungi ; they enlarge the cavity into 
 a kind of chamber, and therein they suspend 
 the dead body. This done, they close up the 
 entrance to this natural tomb with a plank. In 
 the interior the body becomes perfectly dry, and 
 is, in fact, converted into a mummy without 
 further preparation. 
 
 This peculiar kind of burial is especially 
 reserved for a class called the Guerrots, who 
 are the musicians and poets of the country, 
 and in the courts of the negro kings preside at 
 all dances and festivals. While they live and 
 flourish, they derive a peculiar influence from 
 this species of talent, and the ordinary negroes 
 look upon them as potent sorcerers, and treat 
 them with distinguished honour. After death, 
 they still regard them with a superstitious rever- 
 ence ; and they fancy that if they consigned 
 the body of one of these sorcerers to the earth, 
 like the bodies of other men, they would
 
 A WOODLAND SHADE.
 
 THE GARDEN OF EDEN. 109 
 
 expose themselves to an everlasting male- 
 diction. 
 
 Hence, the colossal baobab is chosen as the 
 last resting-place of the Guerrot. There is a 
 strange poetry, says Figuier, in this custom of 
 a barbarous people, which induces them to 
 bury their poets between heaven and earth in 
 the heart of the giant of trees. 
 
 Thinking of all the trees and plants that a 
 merciful God has thus placed at the service of 
 man, for purposes of utility or refreshment of 
 trees and plants differing according to the soil 
 and climate in which they flourish, but all, 
 or nearly all, contributing to human enjoy- 
 ment I am reminded of Milton's exquisite 
 description of Paradise, of the garden of Eden, 
 which, so far as trees and plants are concerned, 
 seems still to exist upon earth : 
 
 " Over head up grew 
 Insuperable height of loftiest shade, 
 Cedar, and pine, and fir, and branching palm, 
 A sylvan scene; and as the ranks ascend, 
 Shade above shade, a woody theatre 
 Of stateliest view. Yet higher than their tops 
 The verdurous wall of Paradise up-sprung ; 
 Which to our general sire gave prospect large 
 Into his nether empire neighbouring round;
 
 1 10 A LOOK A T HOME. 
 
 \ 
 
 And higher than that wall a circling row 
 Of goodliest trees, laden with fairest fruit, 
 Blossoms and fruit at once, of golden hue, 
 Appeared with gay enamelled colours mixed." 
 
 I have said nothing about the manioc, the 
 banana, or plantain a very delicious saccha- 
 rine fruit ; the tare-root of Polynesia, or the 
 useful and widely-spread yam ; in a word, I 
 have not half exhausted the vegetable food 
 which an All- wise God has provided for the in- 
 habitants of Tropical countries ; but it is time 
 we finished our afternoon " walk and talk." We 
 must come back from those rich, glowing, bril- 
 liant lands to our own colder and more sober 
 country, where, however, the mercy of the Crea- 
 tor has been equally bountiful to His creatures. 
 I am sure that I would not give up yonder 
 golden wheat-field for all the cocoa-nut groves 
 in the islands of the Pacific. Besides, the in- 
 dustry and enterprise of our merchants and our 
 seamen bring all the treasures of East and 
 South, and West and North to our doors ; and 
 by the skilful contrivances of science, we are 
 enabled to grow, in places provided with an 
 artificial climate, the rarest fruits and plants of 
 every region.
 
 THE BANANA.
 
 CHESTNUT TREES. 113 
 
 If we go forth, however, into our own woods, 
 we shall find several species of vegetable food ; 
 not so important as those we have just men- 
 tioned, but still of some utility, and assuredly of 
 agreeable flavour. In winter time what would 
 you think of a dessert without a plate of chest- 
 nuts? And, for that matter, in summer time 
 what would you think of an English wood 
 without its avenue of leafy chestnut trees 9 How 
 glorious a sight they present towards the end 
 of May, when their large clusters of cone-shaped 
 blossoms shine tenderly among their glossy 
 foliage ! In Bushey Park, on the Thames, 
 there is a long walk upwards of a mile, I 
 think, in length which is planted on either side 
 with three or four rows of vigorous and vener- 
 able chestnut trees, and I cannot describe to 
 you the beauty of the scene when they are all 
 in flower ; it seems like a landscape borrowed 
 from the fairy world. 
 
 The chestnut tree frequently attains the 
 height of ninety to a hundred feet, and a cir- 
 cumference proportionate to its height. It grows 
 rapidly, and lives to a grand old age. Its 
 leaves are large, oblong, smooth, and shining,
 
 H4 THEIR FLOWERS AND FRUITS. 
 
 and deeply indented at the edges ; its flowers 
 are composed of several divisions, forming a 
 kind of cone, of a pinkish -white, and enclosed 
 in what is called an involucrum, or envelope, 
 which, in the month of September or October, 
 
 CHESTNUT 
 
 becomes thick and leathery, and assumes a 
 prickly outside. Open it, and within you will 
 discover two, three, or even five curiously 
 shaped fruits, called chestnuts. 
 
 In the centre of France and in the Alpine
 
 A TURKISH CUSTOM. 115 
 
 valleys, these fruits form the principal food of 
 the poor peasantry ; and when roasted, they are 
 exceedingly wholesome and nutritious. 
 
 Why are they called chestnuts ? 
 
 That is right, Frederick ; never lose a grain 
 of knowledge for want of asking. The common 
 
 CHESTNUT TREE OF THE HUNDRED HORSES. 
 
 name is said to be of Turkish origin, and to be 
 derived from the Turkish custom of grinding 
 up the nuts and mixing them with the food of 
 horses suffering from disease of the chest. 
 
 I have told you that this beautiful tree
 
 1 1 6 A N EXTRA OK DIN A R Y TREE. 
 
 sometimes attains the height of a hundred feet, 
 and a circumference in proportion. I suppose 
 the largest in the world at all events, one of 
 the largest grows on the green slope of Mount 
 Etna, the great volcanic mountain in Sicily, 
 where it is known as the "Chestnut of a 
 Hundred Horses," because, it is said, a hundred 
 horsemen would find shelter under its branches. 
 
 Its girth at three feet above the ground is 
 about a hundred and eighty-four feet. It is 
 entirely hollow now, and supported chiefly by 
 its bark ; but the glory of its leafage still 
 endures, and is renewed with every spring. 
 The Sicilians tell a story to the effect that 
 Queen Joanna of Naples, while on a visit to 
 Sicily, ascended Mount Etna, accompanied by 
 all the nobles of the island on horseback. A 
 storm coming on, the queen and her attendants 
 took refuge under this tree, whose vast canopy 
 effectually protected them from the rain. 
 
 Mr. Bartlett is of opinion that this extra- 
 ordinary tree consists, in reality, of several 
 trunks ; but other observers are of a different 
 opinion, and maintain that, huge as is its 
 girth, it is only a single chestnut. And it
 
 THE PLEASURES OF NUTTING. 117 
 
 should be added, that many chestnuts on 
 Mount Etna are eighty to ninety feet in circum- 
 ference. 
 
 The chestnut tree belongs to what botanists 
 call a family of trees, each species in the order 
 possessing certain characters in common. This 
 order or family is called Amentacece, and includes 
 many kinds of willow, oak, birch, plane, and 
 poplar. None of these contribute to man's 
 vegetable food ; but one of the members of the 
 Amentaceae is more liberal, as every schoolboy 
 knows I refer to the hazel. 
 
 What boy has not tasted the delights of 
 nutting ? Can you imagine any more delightful 
 sport than to sally forth on an autumn evening, 
 armed with a hooked stick to bring the branches 
 within your reach, and while the sunset is 
 flooding earth with its glory of gold and crim- 
 son, emerald and purple, to plunge into wood 
 or coppice, where every leaf seems a treasury 
 of beautiful colour, and plunder the hazel of its 
 sweet delicious fruit ? 
 
 The hazel is not a tree, however, but a shrub, 
 and seldom grows above twelve feet high. Its 
 branches are slender, upright, and flexible ; it
 
 Ii8 OLD SUPERSTITIO^ 7 . 
 
 bears both male and female flowers, arranged 
 in catkins, or cone-shaped clusters, which turn 
 green towards the end of autumn, and flourish 
 until about Christmas. The nut is partly en- 
 closed in a kind of fleshy envelope or involu- 
 crum ; and while the flavour 
 of the kernel is sweet and 
 tender, the form of the nut 
 is, to my eye, very graceful 
 and attractive. 
 
 Long years ago, when 
 the common people and 
 HAZEL NUTS. not only the common people, 
 
 but learned men, and kings and nobles were 
 very superstitious, it was usual to cut a hazel 
 branch for use as a divining-rod ; that is, it 
 was supposed to possess the power of pointing 
 out the secret source of a water-spring, or even 
 the hiding-place of a concealed treasure, by a 
 peculiar vibratory motion, when held in the hand 
 of a properly qualified person. 
 
 Let me now direct your attention to another 
 tree, whose fruit is invariably a welcome addi- 
 tion to the dessert. In fact, walnuts and wine 
 always go together ; though, for my part, I am
 
 WALNUT TREE. 
 
 119 
 
 content with the walnuts without the wine, and 
 so, 1 suppose, would most boys be. 
 
 The walnut is a large tree, with a whitish 
 bark, more or less rent and fissured according 
 to its age. Its stem is cylindrical that is, 
 shaped like a cylinder and springs upwards 
 to a considerable height before it throws out 
 any branches ; these branches are very ample 
 and spreading, so that the tree, with its leafy 
 canopy, wears a very handsome appearance. 
 Its leaves are of a dull green colour. It is not 
 a native of England, though it flourishes in our 
 climate with much vigour, but of Persia, India, 
 and the region of the Caucasus. Its leaves are 
 smooth, but some- 
 
 what leathery in 
 texture ; like the 
 hazel and the 
 chestnut its flow- 
 ers are disposed in 
 catkins ; and its 
 fruit, as you know, 
 consists of a hard woody shell, enclosed in a 
 green fleshy husk. Walnut-picking is a fine 
 source of amusement for the young ; the fruit 
 
 WALNUT.
 
 USEFUL FOR MANY PURPOSES. 
 
 communicating to the hands a dark peculiar 
 stain, which converts a fair and ruddy Saxon 
 into a brown Gipsy with extraordinary speed. 
 
 Walnuts are brought to the table for dessert 
 when ripe ; but they are also used as a delicious 
 pickle, and for this purpose are gathered in an 
 earlier stage. 
 
 The walnut tree was known to the Greeks 
 
 and Romans, and 
 by them, as by us, 
 was valued for its 
 beautiful timber as 
 well as for its 
 agreeable fruit. I 
 cannot tell you 
 when it was first 
 introduced into our 
 own country, but 
 the old botanist 
 Gerard speaks of " its green and tender nuts," 
 when " boyled in sugar," as " a most pleasant 
 and delectable meat, comforting to the stomach, 
 and expelling poison." The tree is largely 
 cultivated in France, Spain, Italy, and Ger- 
 many, and its nuts enter largely into the food 
 
 WALNUT TREE.
 
 HOW TO COLLECT NUTS. 121 
 
 of the rural population. Finally, we may sing 
 its praises in the words of Cowley : 
 
 " Its timber is for various uses good ; 
 The carver it supplies with useful wood : 
 It makes the painter's fading colours last ; 
 A table it affords us, and repast: 
 E'en while we feast, its oil our lamp supplies ; 
 The rankest poison by its virtue dies." 
 
 Where do we get the Brazil nuts 9 
 They are the fruit of a colossal tree, called 
 the BertJiolletia excelsa, which flourishes in the 
 dense and magnificent woods of the Brazil, on 
 the banks of the great river Amazons. We are 
 told that the Indians make their way into the 
 woodland recesses, and adopt every device they 
 can think of to irritate the monkeys, which live 
 in thousands among the trees. In revenge, the 
 monkeys pelt their persecutors with these nuts, 
 which the Indians immediately proceed to collect 
 with all possible speed. 
 
 Another favourite nut is the almond. This 
 is the fruit of a tree which closely resembles 
 the peach. It is a native of Arabia, but is now 
 cultivated over the whole of Europe ; and in 
 our English gardens is valued for the beauty of 
 its delicate, but frail and fleeting blossoms.
 
 122 THE GRACEFUL HOP. 
 
 " Fair pledges of a fruitful tree, 
 Why do you fall so fast ? " 
 
 But stay : what pretty creeper is this, that 
 mixes its bright-green leaves and dark-brown 
 
 clusters with the honeysuckle bloom, and almost 
 threatens to overpower it ? 
 
 When talking of man's vegetable food, it 
 would have been unpardonable for me to omit 
 the graceful hop. 
 
 I need not remind you that beer, which has
 
 INGREDIENTS OF BEER. 
 
 123 
 
 been called " the Englishman's beverage," is 
 made with hops and malt, the former giving it 
 a bitter flavour, Malt, as you know, is prepared 
 from barley. 
 
 HOP. 
 
 The cultivation of the hop was introduced 
 into England in the reign of Henry VIII. The 
 plant is a native of Europe and of some parts 
 of Asia ; but as it only thrives in a peculiar soil, 
 good hops are rarely met with. In England it
 
 124 HOP-PICKING. 
 
 flourishes bravely in Kent, Sussex, Hampshire, 
 and Worcestershire ; but those of Kent and 
 Sussex are the best, and not alone the best in 
 England, but the best in the world. 
 
 The leaf will remind you of that of the vine ; 
 it is either three-lobed or five-lobed that is, 
 marked out in three or five divisions like the 
 lobes of the human ear. Its flowers grow in 
 loosely spread clusters or cones, resembling the 
 fir-cones in shape, and these gradually enlarge 
 and ripen into the fruit. It is the ripe fruit that 
 is used in brewing. 
 
 As the hop will not grow without support, 
 we train it upon tall stout poles, eighteen or 
 twenty feet high ; and a hop-garden, filled with 
 regular rows of these, presents a very pictur- 
 esque scene in autumn time. Hop-picking be- 
 gins about the middle of September. Women 
 and children are chiefly employed in the plea- 
 sant task, but men are required to lower the 
 poles and cut away the plants, which they then 
 deposit across a sort of wooden trough, and the 
 women and children pick off the fruit. 
 
 Afterwards, the hops are dried in the vast, 
 or kiln, and packed into bags, or pockets, ready
 
 USES IN EVERYTHING. 
 
 125 
 
 HOP-PICKING. 
 
 for sale. The vines that is, the stalks are 
 used for manure in England ; but the Swedes 
 manufacture their fibres into a coarse kind of 
 
 strong white cloth.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 ' T is worth remarking from how many 
 and what various sources Man has 
 learned to supply his physical 
 wants, and in what manner he has 
 learned to conquer the hard con- 
 ditions of Nature. When he can- 
 not avail himself of the beauty of 
 the corn-field, of the golden trea- 
 sures of the orchard, the wealth 
 which loads the plains and valleys 
 of Tropical regions, he knows how to be con- 
 tent with poorer fare : with the scant berries 
 that ripen in northern climates ; with the mosses 
 that clothe the sterile waste, or the sea-weeds 
 cast up on the wave-worn shore. 
 
 For example : he is frequently indebted for 
 subsistence to those simple forms of vegetation 
 called lichens. Among these, the most valu- 
 able, perhaps, is the Iceland Moss (Cetraria
 
 ICELAND MOSS. 
 
 127 
 
 islandicd), which is sold in every chemist's shop. 
 It is the principal article of food which the 
 natives of frozen Iceland possess. In fact, says 
 a popular writer, without it they would as cer- 
 tainly perish as 
 the favoured in- 
 habitants of Bri- 
 tain without the 
 more highly or- 
 ganized cereal 
 plants (as wheat 
 and barley) which, 
 year after year, 
 wave in all their 
 golden beauty 
 over the whole 
 land, and are so 
 strikingly sug- 
 gestive of Na- 
 ture's bounty and 
 munificence. What barley, rye, and oats are to 
 the races of Asia and Western Europe; the olive, 
 the grape, and the fig to the inhabitants of the 
 Mediterranean districts ; the date-palm to the 
 Egyptian and Arabian ; rice to the Hindu ; 
 
 BEAKDED LICHENS.
 
 128 nV SEARCH OF FOOD. 
 
 and the tea-plant to the Chinese, the Iceland 
 moss is to the Laplanders, Icelanders, and Es- 
 quimaux. 
 
 The Iceland moss is found in Scotland as 
 well as in Iceland ; but while in the former 
 country it grows but scantily on the summits 
 and sides of the lofty mountains, in Iceland it 
 spreads profusely over the entire surface of the 
 country. On the black lava which forms the 
 soil of the western districts, and in the dreary 
 region which lies at the base of the great vol- 
 cano of the Skaptar-Jokul, it attains a large 
 size ; and, in the summer months, numer- 
 ous parties wander to these places with all 
 their household effects in order to collect it, 
 either for exportation to the Danish merchants, 
 or for their own use as an article of common 
 food. These excursions, we are told, are usually 
 made once every three years, for the lichen 
 takes three years to grow ripe, after the spots 
 where it flourishes have been cleared. 
 
 Olassen and Povelsen can you read these 
 names? two travellers in Iceland, inform us, 
 that a person will collect four tons in a week ; 
 and they add, that with these four tons of
 
 A DISH FOR A KING. - 129 
 
 nutritious Iceland moss he is better ofi' than 
 with one ton of wheat. 
 
 This seems doubtful ; and another authority 
 states, that the meal obtained from it, when 
 mixed with wheat-flour, certainly produces a 
 greater quantity of bread, though, perhaps, of 
 a less nutritious or feeding quality than could 
 be manufactured from the latter alone. I don't 
 think my young readers would like this Iceland 
 moss bread, however, on account of its bitter 
 taste. But the Icelanders and Laplanders 
 manage to get rid of the bitterness, to a great 
 extent, by the following- process : 
 
 First, they chop it to pieces ; then they pound 
 it for several days in water, mixed with lime or 
 salt of tartar ; next, they pour off the water, dry 
 the moss, mix it with the flour of the common 
 knot-grass, make it into a cake, or boil it, 
 and washing it down with reindeer's milk, pro- 
 nounce it a dish fit for a king ! 
 
 The powder is very like common starch in 
 appearance, and not unlike it in some of its 
 properties ; for it swells in boiling water, and 
 in cooling becomes a fine jelly, which soon 
 hardens into a tough, transparent substance, 
 
 9
 
 130 THE TRIPE DE ROCHE. 
 
 very pleasant to the taste, and particularly so, 
 as I daresay you will recollect, when flavoured 
 with sugar, milk, a little wine, or spices. 
 
 Another lichen, which sometimes enters into 
 the food of man, is called the Tripe de Roche 
 that is, Rock Tripe ; and in the cold, bleak, 
 barren regions about the Pole, where winter 
 reigns for nine or ten months of the year, and 
 the sea is covered with ice, and the ground with 
 frozen snow, this lichen is not to be despised. 
 It is bitter and unpleasant to the taste ; but for 
 a few days, in the absence of everything else, 
 it helps to support life.' 
 
 When Franklin arid Richardson were ex- 
 ploring the North Polar regions, and endeavour- 
 ing to make their way across the icy wilderness, 
 from the Coppermine River to a place called 
 Fort Enterprise, their supplies of provisions 
 became exhausted, and they were compelled 
 to turn to the Tripe de Eoclie to satisfy, in 
 some degree, the cravings of hunger. I will 
 quote from the account of their dismal journey 
 a painful passage descriptive of their suffer- 
 ings : 
 
 " Mr. Hood," says the writer, " was now
 
 A DISMAL JOURNEY. 131 
 
 nearly exhausted, and obliged to walk at a 
 gentle pace in the rear, Dr. Richardson kindly 
 keeping beside him ; whilst Franklin led the 
 foremost men, that he might make them halt 
 occasionally till the stragglers came up. Credit, 
 however, one of their most active hunters, be- 
 came lamentably weak, from the effects of Tripe 
 de Roche upon his constitution ; and Valiant, 
 from the same cause, was daily growing thinner. 
 They only advanced six miles during the day, 
 and at night satisfied the cravings of hunger by 
 a small quantity of Tripe de Roche, mixed up 
 with some scraps of roasted leather. Having 
 boiled and eaten the remains of their old shoes, 
 and every shred of leather which could be picked 
 up, they set forward at nine, like living skeletons, 
 advancing by inches, as it were, over bleak 
 hills, separated by equally barren valleys, which 
 contained not the slightest trace of vegetation 
 except this eternal Tripe de Roche" 
 
 The lichens bearing this curious name are 
 black in colour, and leather-like in substance, 
 with small points about them like coiled wire 
 buttons. They grow on the rocks, in cold and 
 exposed situations, and are attached to them by
 
 132 
 
 EDIBLE LICHENS. 
 
 short strong hairs or fibres. Some of them 
 are not unlike shagreen, or shark's skin ; while 
 others seem corroded, like a fragment of burnt 
 skin, as if the cliff where they grew had suffered 
 from the action of fire. 
 
 
 GATHERING Moss IN THE POI.AK KKUIONS. 
 
 " Though they contain," says Mr. Mac- 
 rnillan, " a considerable quantity of starch, they 
 are exceedingly bitter and astringent, and pro- 
 duce intolerable griping pains when eaten. No 
 one would have recourse to them for food
 
 HUMAN HELPLESSNESS. 133 
 
 except in a case of dire necessity. The 
 Canadian hunters, who are often reduced to 
 the last extremity during their long and toil- 
 some excursions in search of furs, through the 
 desolate regions of Arctic America, often allay 
 the pangs of hunger with this nauseous diet. 
 And sometimes in my own wanderings among 
 the almost unknown and unvisited solitudes of 
 the Scottish mountains, when my stock of pro- 
 visions was exhausted, and a renewal was not 
 to be expected, the nearest shepherd's sheiling 
 being perhaps many miles distant, I have been 
 compelled to satisfy my cravings by eating- 
 small portions of the Tripe de Boche, which I 
 found blackening the dreary rocks around. In 
 such situations, I have felt deeply how weak 
 and helpless is man, when thrown forth from 
 the social scenes and comforts of civilized life, 
 left to his own unaided resources, and exposed 
 to the merciless energies of physical nature ; 
 and how, without some ultimate trust in the 
 Almighty Source of his being, that being is but 
 a straw upon a whirlpool." 
 
 Food for man is scattered everywhere. We
 
 134 
 
 MAN'S FOOD IS EVERYWHERE. 
 
 find it on the sea-shore no less than on the 
 Polar rocks. In many parts of Scotland, the 
 fishermen make use of the sea-weed called 
 dulse, in the absence of other provision, and it 
 is said to be agreeable in flavour and nutritious 
 in quality. The peasant living inland need 
 
 MUSHROOMS. 
 
 only go down to the meadow-bank, and gather 
 the excellent .fungi that flourish there, to furnish 
 himself and family with a dish that might tempt 
 an epicure. 
 
 You ask me, what are fungi 9 
 
 "Well, they are flowerless plants, that usually 
 ripen, as it were, in autumn ; that do not spring
 
 FUNGI AS FOOD. 135 
 
 from the earth, but grow like parasites on or- 
 ganic bodies, and are nourished by animal and 
 vegetable substances in a corrupted state. You 
 will see them fattening upon the body of the 
 oak, or covering the surface of vinegar and 
 cheese with what is popularly called mould, 
 or spreading all over the wall of a damp cellar, 
 for they seem to shun the light, and to prefer 
 moist, close, and badly-ventilated places. Toad- 
 stools ape fungi, and so are mushrooms ; but 
 whilst the former are poisonous, the latter are 
 eminently wholesome. They, however, are not 
 the only kind of fungi which can be used by 
 man as food. The truffle is much esteemed by 
 the lover of dainties, and figures on the dinner- 
 tables of the wealthy. . 
 
 The true value of fungi as Vegetable Food 
 is not known in Great Britain, and the mush- 
 room and truffle are the two varieties chiefly 
 sought after. But it is much to be regretted 
 that so abundant and wholesome a provision is 
 allowed to perish year after year in the fields 
 and meadows, when it would supply the poor 
 man's kitchen with a truly delicious bill of fare. 
 Dr. Badham, who has written a capital book
 
 136 ALL KINDS OF DELICACIES. 
 
 on Eatable Fungi, says: "I have myself witnessed 
 whole hundredweights of rich, wholesome food 
 rotting under trees ; woods tottering with food, 
 and not one hand to gather it ; and this, per- 
 haps, in the midst of potato blight, poverty, 
 and all manner of privations, and public prayers 
 against imminent famine. I have indeed been 
 grieved to see pounds innumerable of extem- 
 
 MlISHflOOMS AND TOADSTOOLS. 
 
 pore beefsteaks (that is, fungi tasting like beef- 
 steaks,, and requiring no cooking) growing on 
 our oaks in the shape of Fistulina hepatica ; 
 Agaricus fusipes, to pickle, in clusters under 
 them ; puff-balls, which some of our friends 
 have not inaptly compared to sweet-bread, for 
 the rich delicacy of their unassisted flavour ; 
 Hydna, as good as oysters, which they some-
 
 HARD NAMES FOR GOOD THINGS. 137 
 
 what resemble in taste ; Agaricus deliciosus, 
 reminding us of tender lamb-kidneys ; the 
 beautiful yellow Chantarelle, growing by the 
 bushel, and no basket but our own to pick 
 them up ; the sweet nutty-flavoured Boletus, in 
 vain calling himself edulis (that is, eatable), 
 where there are none to believe him ; the 
 dainty Oredea, the Agaricus heterophyllus, which 
 tastes like the crawfish when grilled ; the Agari- 
 cus ruber and Agaricus virescens (Agaricus green 
 and red), to cook in any way, and equally good 
 in all ; these are among the most conspicuous 
 of the edible funguses." 
 
 What hard names are given to these plants ! 
 I fear my young readers will be unable to -pro- 
 nounce them. But it does not matter about 
 the names, so long as the things are good ; and 
 though an Agaricus may be hard to pronounce, 
 it is very easy to eat. 
 
 But, remember, it is difficult for an unskilful 
 person to distinguish between fungi that are 
 wholesome, and fungi that are poisonous. Do 
 not attempt to gather them, therefore, without 
 the assistance of some experienced guide. 
 People have lost their lives before now by mis-
 
 138 UNDERGROUND FOOD. 
 
 taking the common toadstool for the mushroom, 
 which it is very like ; that is, very like in 
 appearance, but not in properties, for while the 
 mushroom is wholesome and delicious, the toad- 
 stool is disagreeable and poisonous. 
 
 Before I conclude, let me tell you something 
 about the Truffle. Where do you think it 
 grows? Why, underground. It is generally 
 
 found in beech- 
 woods, and grows 
 in clusters six, 
 eight, or twelve 
 inches below the 
 surface of the soil. 
 You see it can 
 flourish, unlike 
 other plants, with- 
 TKUB - out the aid of light. 
 
 In appearance it is like a rough potato ; at 
 first is white, afterwards black ; and when ripe, 
 it is cracked all over and covered with projec- 
 tions, like a pine-cone or a fir-apple. 
 
 Internally it is solid, grained like a nutmeg, 
 and of a dirty white or pale brown colour. 
 In Great Britain, our truffles seldom exceed
 
 GATHERING TRUFFLES. 139 
 
 three or four ounces in weight ; but in many 
 parts of Italy, Germany, and France, they 
 weigh six, eight, and even ten pounds. 
 
 You ask me, How are they eaten ? 
 
 Oh, they are either placed on the table fresh, 
 like fruit, or roasted like potatoes ; or dried 
 and cut into slices, to flavour our soups. 
 
 But if they grow underground, how do we 
 find them out? 
 
 Well, dogs, which, as you know, possess a 
 peculiar power of scent, are trained to hunt 
 for them. Pigs, too, are remarkably fond of 
 truffles, and by the instinct with which God has 
 gifted them contrive to detect the places where 
 they are to be found, and set to work to dig 
 them up. Then in upon the scene comes man, 
 and seizes the spoil before the pigs can carry 
 it off or devour it. It is, however, possible to 
 cultivate them, just as vegetables are culti- 
 vated. 
 
 Before I conclude this sketch of the various 
 articles which make up man's vegetable food, 
 I think it desirable I should show you in what 
 manner those articles are distributed over the 
 surface of the globe, that you may understand
 
 r 4 o DISTRIBUTION OF PLANTS. 
 
 the extent of our obligations to the develop- 
 ment of commercial enterprise. But for the 
 labours of our travellers and navigators, our 
 tables here in Britain would be but scantily 
 furnished, for our climate is so changeable, that 
 some of the most delicious fruits and useful 
 vegetables will not ripen here, or can only be 
 brought to maturity through expensive artificial 
 means; and, consequently, had we no adventur- 
 ous seamen, they would be utterly unknown to 
 the great majority of our population. 
 
 Linnaeus, the great Swedish botanist, has 
 summed up in a few words the main features of 
 what is called the geographical distribution of 
 plants. He says : " The dynasty of the palms 
 reigns in the warm region of the globe ; the 
 tropical zones are inhabited by whole races of 
 trees and shrubs ; a rich crown of plants adorns 
 the plains of southern Europe ; hosts of Gram- 
 ineas (or grasses) occupy Holland and Denmark ; 
 numerous tribes of mosses are encamped in 
 Sweden ; while the brownish-coloured algse 
 and the white and gray lichens alone survive in 
 bleak and frozen Lapland the most remote 
 inhabited spot of earth."
 
 LIKE TO LIKE. 141 
 
 The great principle of this distribution may 
 be expressed in three words : Like to like. Only 
 those plants flourish together which possess 
 some important characteristics in common, are 
 fed by the same kind of soil, and encouraged 
 by the same kind of climate. The beech will 
 not grow side by side with the cocoa-nut palm; 
 the breadfruit tre'e would perish where the 
 cherry is hale and hearty. Plants are most 
 numerous, are richest in foliage, and, as a rule, 
 most abundant in fruit, in the equatorial or hot 
 regions of the globe ; they diminish in number, 
 exuberance, and value as we approach the Pole. 
 It should be noted, however, with thankful 
 feelings, that the most widely diffused of all 
 plants are the cereals, such as wheat, barley, 
 and rice, which are also the most useful. 
 
 The vegetation which covers the earth, says 
 Buffon, and which is even more closely attached 
 to it than the animals that browse on its sur- 
 face, are far more interested than they in the 
 question of climate. Not only each country, 
 but each changing degree of temperature, has 
 its particular plants. At the foot of the Alps 
 we find the plants of France and Italy ; at their
 
 I 4 2 INFLUENCE OF CLIMATE. 
 
 summit, those of the frozen north ; and these 
 same northern plants we also find on the crests 
 of the African mountains. On the southern 
 slopes of the lofty range which separates the 
 ancient empire of the Moguls from the king- 
 dom of Cashmere, we find many of the vege- 
 table species of India ; on the northern flank, 
 many of those of Europe. It is also from the 
 extremes of climate that we draw our drugs, 
 perfumes, and poisons, and all those plants whose 
 properties are in excess. Temperate climates, 
 on the contrary, produce only temperate things ; 
 the mildest of herbs, the wholesomest of vege- 
 tables, and the most refreshing of plants, and 
 fruits are, like the gentlest of animals, and the 
 most intellectual races of men, the product of 
 the most moderate climates. 
 
 How many species of plants does the reader 
 suppose are distributed over the terrestrial 
 surface ? 
 
 No less than 120,000 have been recognized, 
 named, and described ; but there is good reason 
 to believe that thrice this amazing number have 
 yet to be collected and distinguished by our 
 botanists.
 
 TREES OF THE NORTH. 143 
 
 You will not expect me to refer to a 
 hundredth part of this wonderful army of trees, 
 shrubs, vegetables, and flowers. All I can do 
 is to point out some of the most important, and 
 to show you where you may reasonably expect 
 to find them. When you are older, you will 
 find that geographical botany is one of the most 
 interesting and delightful of studies. 
 
 Well, then, let us turn to Europe. This 
 great continent, for botanical purposes, may be 
 divided into three regions the northern, the 
 central, and the southern. 
 
 In the northern, which comprehends Lapland, 
 Iceland, Norway, part of Sweden, and Russia, 
 the landscapes are bare arid dreary, and in 
 many places the only vegetation consists of a 
 few mosses or lichens, on which the reindeer 
 feeds. The trees which push their way furthest 
 north are the so-called conifers, such as the fir 
 and pine, and with these the slopes of the 
 northern mountains are abundantly clothed. 
 Quitting this desolate scene, we come to a less 
 frigid atmosphere, where the lime, the ash, and 
 the spreading beech crown the plains with their
 
 144 IN TEMPERATE REGIONS. 
 
 beauty. In the Highlands of Scotland you 
 will meet with the elegant birch, and up to the 
 60th degree of latitude ascend the poplar, hazel, 
 and oak ; while up to the 70th, the husband- 
 man cultivates his fields of oats and barley. 
 
 Coming to the central or temperate region 
 of Europe that is, to the British Isles, Ger- 
 many, Holland, Switzerland, Belgium, and the 
 northern districts of France and Italy we re- 
 joice in a far more abundant distribution of 
 useful and ornamental plants. Our fields are 
 golden with wheat ; our gardens abound in 
 flowers, such as roses and lilies, and pinks and 
 cloves ; the banks and hedgerows bloom with 
 hawthorns, violets, pansies, hyacinths, primroses, 
 and the like ; and in our woods we rejoice 
 beneath the leafy boughs of the common oak, 
 the chestnut, the beech, the elm, the alder, and 
 the willow. Turn to the orchard, and we find 
 the apple, the pear, and. the cherry ; while, in the 
 most favoured spots, the vine, the fig, the maize, 
 and the mulberry astonish us by their vigour. 
 
 In the southern, or Mediterranean region, 
 vegetation attains a happy development. The 
 air is filled with the perfume of the flowers,
 
 THE SUNNY SOUTH. 
 
 '45 
 
 which include some of the species most dis- 
 tinguished for elegance of form and beauty of 
 
 AN ENOLISH ORCHARD. 
 
 colour. Here are found the families of the labi- 
 ataa, the cistaceae, the liliacese, the borraginaceae 
 
 10
 
 146 THE NORTH OF ASIA. 
 
 names you do net understand as yet, but 
 which, in after-years, will suggest to you a host 
 of pleasant ideas. The evergreen oak, the 
 balmy myrtle, and the glorious rose-laurel 
 adorn the green hill-sides ; groves of orange 
 and olive trees diversify the landscape ; the 
 hedges are rendered impenetrable by the prickly 
 pear. The cork tree is also a distinctive feature 
 of this plentiful and picturesque vegetation ; 
 and we also meet with the citron, the mastic 
 tree, the cypress, and the pomegranate. 
 
 Next we betake ourselves to Asia, where we 
 find prevailing a similar threefold division of 
 northern, central, and southern regions. 
 
 The vegetation of the north of Asia does not 
 differ largely from that of Europe, though it has, 
 of course, certain distinctive genera. The 
 forests are chiefly composed of the larch, the 
 pine, the poplar, birch trees, service trees, 
 blackberries, alders, willows ; while the under- 
 shrubs consist of myrtles and Alpine roses. 
 Yet a considerable district of Northern Asia is 
 far richer in aspect than the corresponding 
 latitudes of Northern Europe. The Ouralian
 
 IN CENTRAL ASIA. 147 
 
 forests " present an alternation of a mixture of 
 sharp-edged, round-leaved plants, and other mag- 
 nificent trees, an assemblage which is completed 
 by masses of brushwood, formed by wild roses, 
 honeysuckles, and junipers ; while the hesperis, 
 the blue-petalled polemonium, cortusa, mathiola, 
 magnificent primroses, and larkspurs, weave a 
 perfect tapestry of flowers ; and the water trefoil, 
 with its snowy blossoms and exquisitely-carved 
 leaves, forms the ornament of the marshes." 
 
 In Central Asia the distinctive features of its 
 vegetation are strongly marked. 
 
 It is here that we gaze enraptured on the 
 splendid beauty of the magnolias, with their 
 large rich leaves and magnificent flowers ; on 
 the evergreen foliage and pure white blos- 
 soms of the camelia, which is now a favour- 
 ite in every English conservatory ; and on the 
 ornamental foliage of the glossy aucuba. 
 Peculiar to this region of the world is the tea 
 plant, on whose characteristics I have already 
 enlarged ; and another native is the graceful 
 paper mulberry, whose leaves afford the neces- 
 sary nourishment for the silkworm population 
 of China. Here, for the first time, we meet
 
 148 
 
 COMMONER PLANTS. 
 
 with the elegant palm ; the ebony tree, with 
 its delicious cherry-red berries ; the Japan 
 medlar, scarcely less delicious ; and the black 
 walnut, whose fruit has many valuable recom- 
 
 FLOWER OF THE MAGNOLIA. 
 
 mendations. Among better known plants, all 
 of which contribute to our supplies of vegetable 
 food, we may name : 
 
 Rice, wheat, barley, oats ; the sago palm,
 
 THEIR NAME IS LEGION. 149 
 
 the Caribbean cabbage ; apple, pear, orange, 
 quince, apricot, plum, and peach ; yam, water- 
 
 COTTON PLANT. 
 
 melon, gourd, cucumber, radish ; anise, peas, 
 hemp, and haricot beans. 
 
 The all-important cotton plant is one of the 
 most valuable denizens of this favoured region.
 
 150 PLANTS AND TREES IN INDIA. 
 
 " The southern region of Asia," says a re- 
 cent authority, " comprehends the Indian penin- 
 sula. Here non-tropical species disappear, or 
 only present themselves very rarely. Tropical 
 groups become more numerous ; the trees 
 cease to lose their leaves ; ligneous vegetation 
 is much greater than it is without the Tropics; 
 the flowers are larger and more magnificent ; 
 climbing, creeping, and parasitic plants increase 
 in number and size. India may be considered the 
 true country of aromatic plants. Nor is the rich 
 soil less fruitful in the production of plants of 
 another order. Trees producing suitable timber 
 for constructive purposes are found there in 
 perfection." 
 
 Among the plants which furnish vegetable 
 food we meet with the figs ; the sago-palm ; 
 the nutmeg tree ; the areca ; sorghum, or 
 Indian millet ; the pungent pepper shrub, so 
 useful as a seasoning ; the tamarind ; the 
 mango, with its much-extolled and sweet- 
 flavoured fruit ; the banana ; the luscious 
 guava ; the cocoa-nut palm ; the mangosteen ; 
 and the well-known clove. 
 
 But to this region also belong the tall corypha
 
 THE SAHARA DESERT. 151 
 
 umbraculifera, the gigantic screw-pines, the 
 bamboo, the twining and creeping calamus, the 
 fan-leaved borassus, the cassia, acacia, mimosa, 
 and birnonia. 
 
 & 
 
 In Africa three separate regions may very 
 clearly be distinguished ; the northern (or 
 Mediterranean and Saharan), the central or 
 tropical, and the southern. 
 
 In the Sahara the chief vegetable production 
 is the palm the date-palm without which the 
 wandering peoples of the desert would assuredly 
 perish. It is not only important as in itself 
 yielding a most nutritious article of food, but 
 because in its genial shade so many useful 
 plants may be cultivated as onions, beans, 
 carrots, and cabbages ; while the oasis, of which 
 the palm is the centre, and, so to speak, the 
 foundation, also nourishes figs, pomegranates, 
 quinces, pears, apples, and peaches. Pimento 
 is a favourite seasoning with the Arabs. The 
 gombo, the egg plant, and the love-apple are 
 also grown. 
 
 Central Africa is imperfectly known ; but on 
 the coast flourish immense and almost inacces-
 
 152 
 
 AFRICAN VEGETATION. 
 
 sible forests of mangroves, extending their 
 roots to the very waters of ocean ; of plantains, 
 baobabs, aroids, euphorbias, and aloes. It is 
 
 THE MANGROVE. 
 
 almost unnecessary to say that the various 
 species of the palm are prominent among the 
 ornaments of African vegetation. The olive-like 
 palm bears a fruit remarkable for the quantity
 
 IN SOUTHERN AFRICA. 153 
 
 of oil which it contains. Its sap furnishes an 
 excellent wine, and its leaves are much relished 
 by sheep and goats. 
 
 The flora of Southern Africa is distinguished 
 by its numerous beautiful varieties of ericas, or 
 heaths ; pelargoniums, or geraniums ; epacrids, 
 proteas, and ixias. Many of the heaths attain 
 to a height of sixteen feet, and are clothed with 
 blossoms of the most gorgeous character. The 
 stately strelitzias, and the handsome sword-like 
 gladioles, come from the Cape of Good Hope ; 
 also the starry-flowered Stapelias, and the 
 mesembryanthemums, or ice plants. 
 
 Among the edible plants we may men- 
 tion the cereals, the sorghums, the tama- 
 rind, the banana, the guava, and most of the 
 fruits and vegetables belonging to temperate 
 regions. . 
 
 Across the broad waters we hasten to 
 America, and first direct our attention to its 
 great northern continent. Here we perceive, 
 as usual, the three regions of northern, central, 
 and southern. The vegetation of the northern 
 calls for no remark, but in the central we meet
 
 '54 
 
 IN NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 with many very important varieties. Need we 
 remind even our youngest readers that from 
 North America come the kalmias, rhododen- 
 drons, and azaleas which are now so much 
 prized in our English gardens ? That in North 
 America flourishes the magnificent tulip tree ; 
 and that its groves are planted with maples, 
 limes, and robinias ? What shall we say of the 
 American oaks, planes, poplars, elms, ashes, 
 larches, pines, and liquidambars ? If we had 
 but the space, how spell-bound we could hold 
 the reader while we dilated on their distinctive 
 merits ! 
 
 Then turning to the southern region, we 
 would tell him of beauti- 
 ful yuccas and zamias, of 
 exquisite laurels, of won- 
 derful cactacess, of all 
 kinds of fruit-trees, and 
 of the valuable maple, 
 which supplies the well- 
 known maple sugar. 
 
 But leaving him to 
 trace for himself, at a 
 future time, the characters of these innumerable 
 
 FLOWER or THE MAPLE.
 
 IN SOUTH AMERICA. 
 
 155 
 
 products, we proceed, in our rapid survey, to 
 South America. 
 
 Here the great natural divisions are those of 
 
 MAPLE-SUGAR BOILING. 
 
 the Llanos, the Virgin Forests, the Pampas, 
 and the region of the Andes. 
 
 The Llanos are vast grassy plains, chiefly
 
 156 THE VIRGIN FORESTS. 
 
 covered with a dwarf vegetation, but possessing 
 also a few species of palms. Foremost among 
 the latter is the mauritia, which may justly be 
 called the sago tree of America. 
 
 In the region of the Andes we meet with the 
 useful cow-tree, which yields a refreshing, 
 wholesome, and nutritious inilky juice ; and the 
 theobroma cacao, the source of our cocoa and 
 chocolate. Among non-edible plants let us 
 name we can do no more the cactus, willow, 
 oak, cinchona, alder, and andromeda. Maize 
 and coffee, the cereals, European vegetables, and 
 the potato are also abundant ; and a botanist 
 might study the rich growth of the lower slopes 
 of the Andes for many a year and fail to 
 exhaust its stores. 
 
 Perhaps the distinctive feature of the Virgin 
 Forests is their profusion of lianas, or creeping 
 and climbing plants, which encircle the trunks 
 and branches of the trees, clasp them round in 
 a stifling embrace, suspend their gay festoons 
 and waving ribbons to the boughs, and weave 
 an inextricable network of glossy leaves and 
 glowing flowers. But the trees are also re- 
 markable from their height, their girth, their
 
 NEW ZEALAND AND AUSTRALIA. 157 
 
 unwonted shapes, their evergreen foliage, their 
 numerous varieties of colour. 
 
 The vegetation of the Pampas, like that of 
 the Llanos, is chiefly confined to the grasses. 
 In Chili, on the western coast, are immense 
 forests of a peculiar species of palm, the spiny- 
 leaved Araucarm imbricata, which grows to the 
 height of a hundred and fifty feet. 
 
 In the numerous islands of the Southern Ocean, 
 the two characteristic forms are the cocoa-nut 
 palm and the bread-fruit tree. New Zealand is 
 famous for its gigantic ferns, as well as for the 
 edible taro and sweet potato, and the valuable 
 New Zealand flax. Its forest trees are numer- 
 ous, and clothed with beautiful foliage. 
 
 The flora of Australia differs, in some 
 respects, from that of any other part of the 
 world ; but at least one half of it consists of 
 different species of two genera the eucalyptus 
 or gum-tree, and the acacia. The former is 
 the sacred tree of the natives, and in its shadow 
 they inter their dead. 
 
 The sun is now sinking in the west, and I
 
 158 TE DEUM LAUD AM US. 
 
 must conclude my gossip; which, having begun in 
 the corn-fields, has traversed the principal coun- 
 tries of the world to terminate in our own green 
 meadows and shady woods. Wherever we have 
 been, we have found an abundance of Vegetable 
 Food, to gladden the heart and renew the strength 
 of man. We have seen him nowhere confined to 
 a single article of which he might quickly 
 weary but furnished with a wonderful variety 
 to stimulate his industry and gratify his tastes. 
 We have seen, too, that each country has its 
 appropriate growth, so that man shall never be 
 left without food in the world. Yet, how little 
 I have told you ! How much more remains to 
 be told ! If I had had the time, or you were 
 old enough to study the subject more deeply, 
 what countless proofs might I not bring forward, 
 not only of the Divine power and Divine wisdom, 
 but of the Divine love inexhaustible in its 
 resources, unending in its operation, and bound- 
 less in its compassion ! PRAISE BE TO THEE, 
 FATHER ! Thou preparest us food, when 
 Thou hast provided for it !
 
 INDEX. 
 
 AFRICA, vegetation of, 151-153. 
 
 Almond, the, 121. 
 
 America, flora of, 153-157. 
 
 Apple, the, 38. 
 
 Arrack, 21. 
 
 Arrowroot, 70. 
 
 Artichoke, the, 62. 
 
 Asia, vegetation of, 146-151. 
 
 Australia, flora of, 157. 
 
 BANYAN, the, 101-103. 
 Baobab, the, 103-109. 
 Barley, 13. 
 Beans, 58. 
 Brazil nuts, 121. 
 Bread-fruit tree, the, 98-100. 
 Broccoli, 64. 
 
 CABBAGE, 61-64. 
 Capers, 71. 
 Cauliflower, the, 64. 
 Cherry, the, 35-37. 
 Chestnut, the, 113-117. 
 Chocolate, 81, 82. 
 Cocoa, 81. 
 
 Cocoa-nut, the, 83-91. 
 Coffee, 78-80. 
 Corn, 16, 17. 
 Currants, 49. 
 
 DATE PALM, the, 91-98. 
 Dulse, 124. 
 
 EUROPE, trees and plants of, 143- 
 146. 
 
 FIG-TREE, the, 101. 
 
 Flour, 15. 
 
 Fungi, edible, 134-137. 
 
 GOOSEBERRY, the, 48, 49. 
 Grapes, 51, 52. 
 Grass, 12, 13. 
 Grits, 16. 
 
 HAZEL, the, 117, 118. 
 Hop, the, 122-124. 
 
 LEMON, the, 42, 45. 
 Lichens, 126, 127.
 
 i6o 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 MAIZE, 18, 22. 
 Millet, 18, 22, 23. 
 Molasses, 34. 
 Moss, Icelandic, 128-130. 
 Muscatels, 51. 
 
 NUTMEG, 67. 
 
 OATS, 15. 
 Olives, 68-72. 
 Onion, the, 58, 59. 
 Orange, the, 41, 42. 
 
 PEACH, the, 39, 40. 
 Pear, the, 38. 
 Peas, green, 57, 58. 
 Pepper, 65-67. 
 Pine-apple, the, 54. 
 Plums, 40, 41. 
 Pomegranate, the, 53. 
 Potato, the, 55-57. 
 
 QUASS, 15. 
 Quince, 45. 
 
 RADISHES, 61 
 Raisin, the, 50, 51. 
 Raspberry, the, 47, 43. 
 Rice, 17-22. 
 Rock Tripe, 130-133. 
 Rye, 17-22. 
 
 SAFFRON, 70. 
 Salad, 60. 
 Sea-kale, 64. 
 Sherry wine, 68. 
 Spinach, 62. 
 Strawberry, the, 45, 46. 
 Sugar, 24-34. 
 
 TAPIOCA, 70. 
 
 Tea, 72-77. 
 
 Tripe de Roche, 130-133. 
 
 Truffle, the, 138. 
 
 VINE, the, 49, 50. 
 
 WALNUT, the, 118-121. 
 Wheat, 13.
 
 flCSB LIBRARY