ment in the production of sugar, which has ended in the establishment of this manufacture in France, by the imposition of excessive duties on the importation of sugar from the colonies,- -a public act of more than doubtful policy.*

Examples of garden herbs, which, like the brassica species, supply varieties of vegetable food in their leaves, are to be found in the spinach and lettuce. The former takes its name from its Moorish appelation, Hispanach, or Spanish plant, having been first brought into Europe through the medium of Spain, probably from the west of Asia, where it was early famous for its supposed medicinal qualities. Spinach is an annual plant, having large and succulent leaves. It is chiefly remarkable in - botany as being one of that class of vegetables, which has the different parts of fructification on separate plants,— hence named diœcious. There is a species of spinach, indigenous in this country, called, somewhat fantastically, Good King Harry, or English Mercury. It is a perennial, and has large arrow-shaped leaves, powdered on the under side. The stem is also powdered, and is upright, thick, and striated. When young, both the stem and the leaves are succulent, the former being used as an asparagus, and the latter as a spinach. It is cultivated in Lincolnshire, where it is preferred to common spinach; but it does not easily accommodate itself to differences of soil and situation. This probably arises from the circumstance of its having been only recently brought into a state of cultivation; for it is worthy of remark, that, among other advantageous changes produced in the character of plants, that of superior docility, as it may be called, is acquired by long subjection to training.

Lettuce is used in its raw state with the dessert, made up with other garden herbs into a salad, and is of so

* "The cultivation of the beet," truly observes the Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, "is but one ramification of that system of repulsion and exclusion, which has been adopted in France, to the oppression of her domestic industry, the ruin of her foreign commerce, and the maintenance of false principles in the commercial policy of surrounding nations."-No. xii.

easy growth, and so cooling and agreeable in its qualities, as to be an universal favourite in the gardens even of the middle classes. The species comprises many varieties, all of which possess a milky juice, which is slightly narcotic. This juice is very bitter, and, when it becomes abundant, which takes place as the plant advances towards the period of flowering, it ceases to be used at the table. Of late, the narcotic principle of the lettuce has been employed in medicine, under the name of lactucarium; and it is supposed to possess the virtues of opium, in a mild degree, without producing the same deleterious effects. It has, in some places, become an object of culture for this particular object.

The endive, a native of China, and the succory or wild endive, which is indigenous in Britain and throughout Europe, are employed also as salads, and afford other instances of plants being propagated for their edible leaves.

Of the productions of the garden which have esculent bulbs, the onion is the most remarkable. It is not very nourishing, nor agreeable in its odour, but it possesses a pleasant pungency of taste, which renders it very acceptable, especially to the humbler classes, who use it as the chief relish for their food. This bulb has been an object of cultivation for at least 4000 years. We read in Scripture of the highly-prized onions of Egypt, where the plant is still a favourite article of food. Hasselquist speaks of the Egyptian onion as one of the greatest delicacies in the world, and says there is no wonder that the Israelites regretted its loss, and wished to return to servitude, that they might enjoy it. In this country, the comparative coldness of the climate has caused the onion to degenerate, rendering its flavour rank, and its coats too compact to be easy of digestion.

Among garden plants, the shoots of which are used at the table, I may particularize the asparagus and the celery, the top of the former being eaten, and the blanched lower parts of the footstalks of the latter.

They are employed entirely as a luxury, and appear only at the tables of the middle and higher classes. The former was cultivated by the ancients, and was held in much esteem in the classic ages. "The head of the young shoot of asparagus is edible just as far as the part that is to flower extends; and thus, one who eats a head of asparagus eats, in that little space, the rudiments of many hundreds of branches, and many thousands of leaves."

I shall not extend this enumeration farther. My object has been accomplished, so far as relates to the variety of forms in which the Author of Nature has produced esculent vegetables, although but a very small part of that variety has been noticed. What are still more worthy of observation, as indicating benevolent design, are the differences which exist in the taste and flavour of these productions. In this particular, they all vary from each other. Each produces its own peculiar excitement on the organs of taste, and thus gives rise to very many agreeable sensations. Our great Milton has thought it not beneath the epic dignity of his sublime poem, to represent the mother of mankind selecting and arranging, with the nicest regard to their various and peculiar tastes, the fruits which she prepares as a banquet for her angel guest. The poet had too much fine philosophy not to discern the blessing conveyed in the wonderful variety of tastes possessed by the earth's vegetable productions; and, accordingly, in one of his most beautiful passages, he thus alludes to it in his own inimitable manner :

"So saying, with dispatchful looks, in haste
She turns, on hospitable thoughts intent;
What choice to choose for delicacy best,
What order, so contrived as not to mix
Tastes not well joined, inelegant, but bring
Taste after taste, upheld with kindliest change;
Bestirs her then, and from each tender stalk,
Whatever Earth, all bearing mother, yields
* Vegetable Substances, p. 276.

In India, East or West, or middle shore,

In Pontus or the Punic coast, or where
Alcinous reigned, fruit of all kinds, in coat

Rough, or smooth rind, or bearded husk, or shell,
She gathers tribute large, and on the board
Heaps with unsparing hand."

The pleasures resulting from the gratification of the senses, are indeed of inferior value; but yet, in estimating the blessings which our heavenly Father has scattered around us, they are not to be overlooked. Like every other gift, they may doubtless be abused, and there is nothing more disgusting than the character of a glutton or an epicure. But, when kept in their proper place, they not only add to the charm of existence, but in many ways form a salutary stimulus to exertion, and produce a useful moral effect on the human character.

FIRST WEEK-TUESDAY.

HORTICULTURE.-FRUITS.

As I have elsewhere noticed flowers, with some minuteness, I shall not, at present, recur to these most beautiful and pleasing productions of our gardens, but shall proceed to consider the provision which the Creator has made for the subsistence and enjoyments of living creatures, in bestowing upon them a variety of fruits. In introducing this subject, I have gathered my facts from the learned and judicious notices contained in the preliminary observations to the detailed account of the productions of the orchard, published by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. †

The progressive cultivation of fruits, as well as of other vegetable productions, and their removal by wandering tribes and conquerors, from region to region, give, when * See "Spring," pp 76-88. † Vegetable Substances, pp. 213-222.

these events can be traced, a peculiar interest to the subject. The absence of records, and the little attention which early history has paid to almost any thing save the splendid though destructive tracks of victorious armies, has involved the facts in obscurity; but, wherever man has penetrated, we may be assured that he has assisted the dissemination of vegetable productions, “ much more surely and rapidly than the birds which bear their seeds from land to land, than the currents of the ocean, or even than the winds."

66

If we consider, for example, the fruits of our own country, we shall observe to what extent the conquests of foreign foes have operated in this beneficial manner. Before the invasion of the Romans, the natives of Britain probably possessed no other than the wild fruits of northern Europe, the crab, the sloe, the hazel-nut, and the acorn. The Romans themselves had, but a few centuries before, obtained their principal fruits from Greece, and more eastern countries. It was not till the triumph of Lucullus, that the cherry was transported to Italy from Pontus,* as a memorial of his conquest. In less than a century, the same species of cherry was common in France, in Germany, and in England, where the conquerors had introduced it. Thus the cherry, and in all probability, the peach, the plum, the apple, and the pear, are evidences that England was once a colony of Rome. It is interesting to remark, as a fact in perfect accordance with the ordinary operations of the allwise, but mysterious Governor, who " causes the wrath of man to praise him," that the evils of war are generally mitigated, in the earlier stages of society, by the diffusion of the arts of cultivation. Plutarch, noticing this in the case of Alexander the Great, says, perhaps with some natural exaggeration, that the communications which that conqueror opened up between distant nations, by his pro

*From Cerasus, a Greek city on the shores of the Pontus Euxinus, caerries were first brought to Europe by the Roman conqueror in the year of Rome 680, that is, before the Christian era 73; and from the name of this place, our word cherry is supposed to be derived.