three degrees. The benevolent exertion of
Oats is put forth on behalf not only of men,
but also of their horses. In Scotland and
Lancashire, in some countries of Germany,
especially south of Westphalia, the people
look to Oats for sustenance. Scotch bone and
muscle are chiefly indebted to oatmeal ; for
porridge (which consists of oatmeal and water,
and is eaten with milk) is the staple — almost
the only — food of the sturdy Scottish
peasantry. Oatcake, a kind of mash, such as
horses are fed on occasionally in this country,
made into a thin cake and baked, is also much
relished north of the Tweed. South of the
parallel of Paris, however, the friendship of
Oats is little cultivated. In Spain and
Portugal nobody knows anything about Oats,
except as a point of curiosity.

The RYE branch of the Grass family travels
more to the north than Oats in Scandinavia.
In our own country we decline to receive gifts
from Rye: we succeed so well in the cultivation
of more wealthy benefactors, that we
consider the Ryes poor friends; and, like good
Britons, hold them at arm's length accordingly.
In countries where the land is poor, poor Rye
is welcome to a settlement upon it. Rye
is in great request in Russia, Germany, and
parts of France, and one-third of the
population of Europe looks to its help for daily
bread.

The most numerous and respectable
members of the great Grass family, are those
which bear the name of WHEAT. There are
an immense number of different Wheats; as
many Wheats among the grasses as there are
in this country Smiths among the men. We
know them best as summer and winter Wheats.
The family seat of the Wheats, most probably,
will never be discovered. There is reason to
believe that Tartary and Persia are the native
countries of Wheat, Oats, and Rye. Strabo
says that Wheat is native on the banks of the
Indus. Probably, wherever the old seats may
be, all trace of them was destroyed in very
ancient times, when even a thousand years
ago and more, the plough passed over them.
The settlements of Wheat in Scotland extend
to the north of Inverness; in Norway, to
Drontheim; in Russia, to St. Petersburgh.
How far north the Wheats would consent to
extend the sphere of their influence in
America, it is not possible to tell, because
enough attempt at cultivation has not yet been
made there in the northern regions. Winter
cold does not concern the Wheats. The spring-sown
Wheat escapes it, and that sown in
autumn is protected by a covering of snow.
Wheat keeps a respectful distance of twenty
degrees from the Equator. Indeed, in the
warm latitudes, new combinations of heat and
moisture, grateful to new and very beautiful
members of the vegetable world, who suit
their gifts more accurately to wishes of the
people whom they feed, would cause the kind
offices of Wheat to be rejected, even if they
could be offered there. On mountains in
warm climates, settlements of Wheat of course
exist. On the north side of the Himalaya
mountains Wheat and Barley flourish at a
height of thirteen thousand feet.

The well-known name of RICE carries our
thoughts to Asia. The family seat is
somewhere in Asia, doubtless; but all trace of it
is lost. The family has always lived in
Southern Asia, where it supplies food,
probably, to more men than any other race of
plants has ever had occasion to support. No
Rice can enjoy good health without much
heat and much moisture. If these could be
found everywhere, everybody would cultivate
a valuable friend, that is supposed to scatter
over a given surface of ground more than a
common share of nourishment.

Most liberal of all vegetables, however, in
this respect, are the BANANAS. Humboldt
tells us, that they spread over the said given
extent of ground, forty-four times more
nutritive matter than the Potatoes, and a
hundred and thirty-three times more than any
Wheat.

Where the benevolent among our Grasses
cease to grow, because it is too far south,
there it is just far enough north for the
COCOA-NUTS, who, within their limited sphere,
supply a vast contribution towards the
maintenance of man, that very wise and very
independent creature. Very nearly three
million of Cocoa-Nuts have been exported
in one year from the Island of Ceylon.

Then there is in Brazil that excellent
vegetable friend MANIOC, a shrub, whose
roots yield almost the only kind of meal
there used. An acre of Manioc is said to
yield as much food as six acres of wheat.

And to come nearer home, there is a
large-hearted plant, bearing the name of MAIZE,
and the nickname of Turkish Wheat. Its
native seat has not been fixed yet by the
genealogist. It grows at a good height above
the sea in tropical America, and it occurs in.
Eastern Europe on the banks of the Dniester,
in latitude forty- nine. Maize does not care
about the winter; it wants nothing but
summer-heat, in a country which it is to choose
as a congenial habitation. It will do, also,
with less heat than the vine, for it has been
grown in the Lower Pyrenees, at three thousand
two hundred and eighty feet above the level
of the sea, the vine stopping at two thousand
six hundred and twenty.

We have here spoken only of a few of the
great liberal families belonging to the world
of plants; families, to which the human colony
looks for support; upon whose aid we, in fact,
depend for our existence. The whole list of
our vegetable patrons would be very long.
Respectable names must crowd down upon
every memory, and take us off to

"Citron groves;
To where the lemon and the piercing lime,
With the deep orange, glowing through the green,
Their lighter glories blend. Lay us reclined
Beneath the spreading tamarind"—