of a few harvests, the progeny of a single little germ might be rendered capable of feeding a nation. "Thus it is," says the author of the articles on Vegetable Substances, in the Library of Entertaining Knowledge, "that in the lapse of ages, amidst the desolations of rude conquerors, and the alternations which the finest portions of the earth have endured, from civilization to semi-barbarism, the vital principle of vegetable life, destined for the chief support of the human race, has not been lost; and it has remained to man, like fire, which he alone has subjected to his use, to be called forth at his bidding, to administer to his support, his comfort, and his advancement in every art of social existence."*

There is something very striking in the fact, that, while conquest carries extermination over the face of the earth, it is also one of the frequent means employed by Providence for diffusing the blessing of useful plants among rude nations, as well as various other comforts of civilized society. Connected with this subject, it is exceedingly affecting to think that the value of decaying organized substances, as manure, may, perhaps, first have been taught to a savage people, by observing the effects produced by this process on a field of battle. This idea has been suggested by the following observations of an amiable and talented traveller, on the field of Waterloo. "As I looked over this field, now green with growing corn, I could mark with my eye spots where the most desperate carnage had been, pointed out by the verdure. of the wheat. This touching memorial, which endures when the thousand groans have expired, and when the stain of human blood has faded from the ground, still seems to cry to heaven that there is awful guilt somewhere, and a terrific reckoning for those who had caused destruction which the earth would not conceal. These hillocks of superabundant vegetation, as the wind rustled through the corn, seemed the most affecting monuments which Nature could devise, and gave a melancholy animation to the plain of death."+

* Vegetable Substances, p. 40.

Essays Descriptive and Moral, by an American.'

ELEVENTH WEEK-WEDNESDAY.

THE CORN-PLANTS.-RICE, MAIZE, AND MILLET

IN approaching the tropical regions, all the kinds of grain already treated of gradually disappear, and rice, maize, and millet, are cultivated in their place. These plants are obviously formed for occupying, with wholesome food, each in its own peculiar region, the extensive plains and rising grounds of the equatorial portions of the globe, the rice affecting the low swampy lands on globe,—the the banks of the rivers and streams, the maize also requiring moisture, but in a much smaller proportion, and the millet being an inhabitant of light sandy soils, exposed, without mitigation, to the scorching rays of the sun.

Of rice itself, indeed, there are varieties, which almost render it fit for any state of moisture. The common and the early rice are both marsh plants, but the mountain rice thrives on the slopes of hills and in other situations where it can receive humidity only occasionally, and the clammy rice appears to be endowed with the peculiar property of growing both on wet and on dry grounds. The species chiefly cultivated, however, requires much moisture; and in almost all parts of the world where it is raised, the practice of irrigation has been adopted.

Rice is a panicled grass. The seed grows on separate footstalks, springing from the stem. Each grain is terminated by an awn or beard, and enclosed in a rough yellow husk, the whole forming a spiked panicle. The stalk is not unlike that of wheat, but the joints are more

numerous.

The farina of rice is almost entirely composed of starch, having little or no gluten, and being without any ready formed saccharine matter. On account of this difference of composition, it is believed to be much less nutritious than the corn-plants already described.

There is little reason for doubting that this grain is of Asiatic origin. From the earliest records, it has formed the principal, if not almost the only food of the great mass of the population on the continent and in the islands of India, as well as throughout the Chinese empire. The introduction of it into America, where it is now so extensively cultivated, is of recent date. It is said, that about the end of the century before last, a brigantine from the island of Madagascar happened to put in at Carolina, having a little seed rice, which the captain gave to a gentleman of the name of Woodward. This he sowed; and as it was productive, it soon became dispersed over the province. It is reported, also, that Mr. Dubois, Treasurer of the East India Company, about the same time, sent a small bag of rice-seed to that country; and from these two parcels, it is supposed, that the two kinds, the red and the white, now raised in America, took their rise.

The swamps of South Carolina, both those which are occasioned by the periodical visitings of the tides, and those which are caused by the inland floodings of the rivers, are found to be well suited to the production of rice; and not only is the cultivation accomplished with little labor, but the grain proves of a remarkably fine quality. It is, in that part of the Union, extensively cultivated for exportation.

In some parts of Europe, and, in particular, on the rich meadows of Lombardy, which can be irrigated by the waters of the Po, and in the province of Valencia, in Spain, where there are similar facilities, rice is successfully cultivated; but the effects of the flooding are found in Lombardy to be so detrimental to health, that the government has thought it necessary to restrict this profitable species of agriculture within certain limits.

Although rice be exceedingly prolific, it has been remarked, that it has a tendency rather to condemn the great body of the inhabitants to poverty, than to prove a source of riches, in those countries where it forms the sole article of food. The reason for this it is not difficult to discover. The people obtaining the bare means of sub

sistence, without laborious exertion, are destitute of those incentives to industry which so powerfully and so beneficially actuate the lower classes of the community in such countries as our own, and which infuse such life and vigor into all the various grades of society. Their native indolence restrains their activity; and in ordinary years, luxuriating in abundance, they are contented with the present, and form no schemes for the future. It is remarkable, however, that in such countries, visitations of famine are both more common and more destructive than in those regions of the globe which are naturally less prolific. This is owing not merely to the want of provident habits in the inhabitants, but also to the circumstance of their entire dependence on one article of food. When a failure in their rice crop occurs, they have no other kind of sustenance to fall back upon. The misery of their condition in this respect may be readily understood, by supposing what would be the state of our own poor if they depended solely for support on potatoes. That crop, from whatever cause, has showed for several years a tendency to failure in its prolific powers. It is frightful to think of the misery which must have ensued, had not a mitigation of the evil been found in the comparative abundance of the various kinds of grain, in which the laboring classes are enabled to find a substitute. In considering this subject, we shall find a confirmation of the reasoning contained in previous papers, as to the wisdom and beneficence of that providential arrangement, which has made hard labor, in by far the greatest variety of cases, essential as the means of procuring the common necessaries of life.

On the other kinds of grain which a beneficent Creator has granted to the inhabitants of the warmer regions of the earth, it does not seem necessary to say much. The plant of Indian corn or maize, consists of a strong, reedy, jointed stalk, provided with large flag-like leaves, and surmounted with hard seeds, growing round a cylindrical pith or cob, and enveloped in a husk. It is said to contain no gluten, and little, if any, saccharine matter, whence it has been asserted to have but small nutritive power.

This theoretical conclusion is, however, contradicted by experience, as domestic animals, of every description, when fed on it, speedily become fat, their flesh being at the same time remarkably firm; and the common people of countries where this grain forms the ordinary food, are for the most part strong and hardy races. The produce of maize, on a given extent of cultivation, is greater than that of any other grain; and the proportional return for a given quantity of seed is equally advantageous. Perhaps it might be usefully introduced into England as a green crop; but the experiments which have been made, notwithstanding the strong assertions of Mr. Cobbett to the contrary, seem to prove, that in our climate the seeds do not, in ordinary years, come to maturity.

[Whatever may be the result of the cultivation of Indian corn in European countries, it is certain that no crop is more valuable to the American farmer. When the ear is green, or in the milk, it is a delightful vegetable ; and when ripe, the grain is nutritious food, in a variety of prepared and unprepared forms, both to man and the domestic animals. There are several different kinds of maize, some of which require a hot and long summer, while others are content with a cooler clime; so that some one or more of these kinds are matured in abundance, both in the Eastern and Western States, and from Maine to Florida. What is termed the Sweet Corn is the best kind for boiling as a vegetable; but it is to be feared that sufficient care is not taken to preserve this variety pure from admixture with other kinds.-AM. ED.]

Millet, the smallest of all the cereal seeds cultivated for food, grows on arid soils, where rice and maize cannot be successfully cultivated, and forms the chief subsistence of the people in some parts of India, through the sandy districts of Arabia, in Syria, where it has been produced from the earliest periods, and in Nubia, where the inhabitants cultivate this, almost to the exclusion of every other species of grain.

A hardy variety of this plant is also raised in Germany, and was introduced into Switzerland by M. Tschiffeli, about the middle of last century. This gentleman has