Remarkable exotic vegetable productions. SEPTEMBER 14. OF SUME REMARKABLE EXOTIC VEGETABLE, PROP› INDEED, my brethren, we do not pay sufficient attention to the blessings of God, especially those which are wafted to us by the ocean, from distant countries, and are almost indispensably necessary. for our subsistence. Did we reflect how many. wheels in the great machine of Nature must be setin motion, how much labor and industry must be expended, before we can obtain a loaf of sugar or a stick of cinnamon, we should not snatch the gifts of of Nature as our prey, but receive them with the sin cerest gratitude to that Being who conveys them to us through so many channels. We shall now notice some of the principal foreign vegetable productions which have become articles of the first necessity in our domestic economy. This consideration may perhaps produce some useful reflections in our minds; at least it will give us occasion to commiserate the lot of our miserable fellow-creatures condemned to slavery in order to furnish us with so many delicacies. Sugar is properly the salt expressed from the juice and pith of the sugar-cane, a reed principally cultivated in the continent of South America and the West India islands; and which likewise grows in great quantity in the East Indies and the African islands. The preparation of sugar does not require much art, but it is a laborious operation, which is chiefly performed by the hands of slaves. When the canes are ripe they are cut down, and the juice is expressed from them in a mill constructed for Remarkable exotic vegetable productions. the purpose. The juice is immediately boiled, otherwise it would ferment and turn sour. When it boils the scum is taken off, and this boiling is re peated four times in different vessels. It is then poured into moulds, where it acquires the necessary consistence, to which the lime mixed with it while boiling principally contributes. Tea is prepared from the leaves of a shrub which grows in Japan, China, and other regions of Asia. These leaves are gathered twice or thrice in spring. Those of the first gathering are the finest and most delicate, and are known by the name of imperial tea, none of which, however, is exported to Europe. What the Dutch sell under that name is only tea of the second gathering. Coffee is the kernel of a fruit resembling the cherry. The tree which bears it is a native of Arabia Felix, but has been transplanted into many hot countries. The best coffee, next to that of Arabia, is raised in the island of Martinique. The fruit is formed like a cherry, and in the middle of it is the kernel, which we call the bean. When fresh this kernel is yellowish, or of a light green, and it preserves nearly the same color when dry, The fruit is dried upon mats in the sun, and afterwards bruised with rollers to make the kernel drop out. Each kernel divides into two halves, and, after being dried a second time in the sun, they are shipped. Cloves are the dried flower-buds of a tree which formerly grew wild on the Molucca islands, but which the Dutch have since transplanted to Amboyna. This tree resembles the laurel in figure, and its trunk is covered with bark, like that of the olive tree. At the extremities of the branches grow * Remarkable exotic vegetable productions. clusters of white flowers, in the form of a nail. The fruit is at first light green; it afterwards turns yellow, then red, and lastly dark brown, such as we see it. Cinnamon is the bark of a species of laurel which grows scarcely any where but in the island of Ceyion. The trunk of the tree which produces it is.. thick, divides into several branches, and is covered externally with a greyish red bark, but the interior. bark is reddish. The leaves would very nearly resemble those of the laurel, if they were shorter and less pointed. The flowers are small and white, and have an agreeable smell, almost like that of the lily of the valley. When the tree has attained a certain age, the bark is stripped off: the outer bark, being good for nothing, is thrown away, but the inner is dried in the sun, which causes it to roll up in the form in which it is brought to Europe. Nutmegs and mace are the produce of one and the same tree, which, grows in all the Molucca islands. The nut is covered, with three skins or coats. The first drops off when the nut is ripe; the,. second, which is very fine and delicate, then appears; it is carefully separated from the fresh nut, and exposed in the sun to dry. This is what we call mace. The third rind immediately covers the nutmeg, which is taken out of it, and steeped for, some days in lime-water. This done, it may be exported without danger of spoiling by the way,` Cotton grows in most parts of Asia, Africa, and America. It is inclosed in the fruit of a shrub. This fruit is a kind of pod, which opens when ripe, and exposes a flock of down as white as snow, which expands with the warmth, and grows to the size of an apple. The cotton is separated from the seed bỵ. Remarkable exotic vegetable productions. means of machines made for the purpose, and is thus prepared for the manufacturer. Oil is the juice expressed from the olive, which is produced in great abundance in France, Spain, Portugal, and Italy, which contain whole woods of olive-trees. The inhabitants of the provinces where the olive-tree grows make use of its oil instead of butter, because the excessive heat burns up the grass to such a degree as to prevent them from keeping cattle. Pepper is the fruit of a shrub which requires a prop to support it. Its branches are knotty, like the vine, which it exactly resembles. Its leaves, which have a strong smell, are oval, and terminate in a point. The flowers which grow in the middle and at the extremity of the branches are white, and produce small bunches, like currants, each of which contains twenty or thirty pepper-corns. To the reflecting mind it affords no small delight to contemplate the abundant provision made, not only for the supply of our wants, but also to contribute to our pleasures. Consider, reader, the profusion of blessings which you receive at the hand of God. Observe how every country pays its tribute, in order to gratify your utmost wishes. And alas! unfortunate wretches who deserve quite as well as you to eat their bread in happiness and ease, cultivate and prepare these delicacies, which you enjoy in such abundance. If you will not think of your almighty benefactor, bestow a thought, at least, on the instruments which he employs to furnish you a portion of your subsistence. But how is it possible that you can forget that God, who has overy where spread a table for you, and has érect Reflections on myself. ed monuments of his beneficence in every region of the globe! SEPTEMBER 15. REFLECTIONS ON MYSELF. I LIVE; my blood circulates unfelt through my veins, formed and protected with so much art. I sleep; and, unconscious of my existence, my soul still continues to inform the outstretched and apparently inanimate body. I awake; my senses resume their functions. and the soul receives more vivid impressions. I eat, I drink: charmed with the exterior beauties of Nature, with which I float in the ocean of omnipotence, my heart is filled with transport.-Am I the author of all these effects? Did I impart to the first principles and the first lineaments of my body this astonishing faculty of motion, when involved in the night of non-existence, I knew not what motion was? Did I form the assemblage of the different parts that compose my frame-1, who am not even acquainted with their structure and combination? Did I possess superior intelligence before I began to exist, or did I exist before the intelligence with which I am endued? How is it that I cannot determine the point of time between sleeping and waking? What is the mechanism of my stomach, which digests aliments without my command or assistance, and how is this digestion effected? How happens it that all the creatures of my species are formed like myself, and why did I not give myself a different structure? Did I create all the beauties of Nature, or did they 6 |