I have spoken of Wheat* separately; but Barley, Oats, Rice, Maize, Potatoes, Tea, Coffee, Cocoa, Sugar, and numberless low-grown vegetables, called in the first of Genesis "Herbs," come in boundless variety to supply the wants of man.

In Judea the barley harvest was the first reaped; and ere it was gathered, there took place, according to Jewish historians, this most solemn ceremony. The High Priest of Israel (God's family on earth) went into the barley-field with a golden basket, reaped a sheaf of the first-fruits, and then laid it up in the Tabernacle before and during the sabbath; but on the morning after the sabbath, (Lev. xxiii. 10,) he took the sheaf, and, standing at the brazen altar, waved it on high before the Lord, to the four quarters of the land, acknowledging thereby that all that sprang from the earth, in the north, east, south, or west, was the Lord's; and theirs only by first being acknowledged to be his THE GREAT LORD OF THE HARVEST. The whole of this, in its various parts, is applied in the New Testament spiritually; but I will tell you of it in the next letter.

If this order of vegetation is boundless, dear children, yet the trees that are good for food, in variety at least, abound more; and man's delight seems to be more contemplated in them than his sustenance : for every stage of the fruit, on to maturity, is replete with interest

• In Europe, wheat is the staff of life; in China and the East, rice; in Ireland, potatoes seem with the poor almost to supersede all other food. The annual value of grain grown in Britain in one year (1831) was 112,000,000l. sterling.

from the bud to the blossom, and from the blossom to the full-grown fruit: indeed, it would be difficult to decide whether the orchard in its blossoms of spring, or its fruits of autumn, is most beautiful; and then the fruits are so adapted to the state of man in his peculiar localities. In the West Indies, though the pine-apple and the rich melon have both spread out their beauties before one's eyes, yet I have often found the large green water melon, filled with its cold delicious nectar, far more refreshing; and this abounds beyond the other fruits: but those living there can alone appreciate this fruit.

But there is one peculiar order of vegetation that does so interest me that I must not pass on before I describe it to you, as it does, as with an angel's voice, proclaim the exceeding goodness of our God. The first in this order is the bread-fruit tree, which seems at once, almost without any preparation or kneading, to provide us with bread ready for the oven. Then, again, there is another tree which, in the absence of the cow, comes to us with a delicious fluid like milk; another with butter; and last of all, and perhaps the most to be desired, are the water trees, which may be called vegetable springs continually flowing. There is something so very apparent in this order of vegetation, that the hymn of praise spontaneously bursts from the "The Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works. The eyes of all wait upon Thee, and thou givest them their meat in due season." (Ps. cxlv. 9-15.)

new man,

Bread-fruit. This vegetable was first brought to notice by Captain

Cook, who discovered it at Otaheite. It grows about the height of a middle-sized oak; and yields three or four harvests in the year. Its leaves resemble the fig-tree, and when broken, exude a juice like milk. The fruit is about as large as a child's head, and is as white as snow, and of the consistence of bread. The tree is propagated by layers or suckers. It not only supplies a sort of bread for the table; but the table itself is made from its trunk; and the cloth which covers it from the bark. The natives also use its wood for their canoes, and extract a valuable resin from it.

Palo de vaca, or the Cow Tree, grows in the Caraccas and other parts of South America, in rocky districts, where for months there is no rain. It is also found in Demerara, and there called Hyahya: its height is about one hundred feet. On piercing the trunk, a sweet and nourishing milk springs forth, which the natives catch in bowls. In coffee this milk cannot be distinguished from that in

common use.

The Butter Tree is described by Lander, the African traveller, as yielding a vegetable marrow like butter, very pleasant to the taste. In Jamaica, I have used the fruit of the alligator pear-tree on bread, with pepper and salt, exactly in the same way as butter, and always greatly preferred it.

And, lastly, the Water Trees, of which the three following are the best known, must in no wise be omitted, manifesting, as they do, the most marked contrivance to meet man's wants. Their names are:

(1st) the Wild Pine; (2nd) the Tillandsia, or Water Tree of Jamaica; and (3rd) the Nepenthis Distillatoria.

The Wild Pine is an inhabitant of South America, and the Caribbean or West Indian Islands. It grows on the branches of other trees: its leaves grow folded round one another so compactly, that the water which runs in at the top is preserved from evaporation; and thus these reservoirs, holding from a pint to a quart of water, produced and filled alike without the agency of man, wait on his necessity.

The Tillandsia is like a vine in size and shape; and although it grows in parched districts, is so full of clear sap, that by cutting a piece two or three yards long, and holding it to the mouth, a plentiful draught is obtained. The glass and the water alike from the

same tree.

The Nepenthis Distillatoria, found in the East Indies, is most remarkable in its structure. It has literally leaf mugs, or tankards, hanging from it, each holding from a pint to a quart of pure water. The tankards have also a leaf cover, so closely fitted, that no evaporation takes place. There is a little hook behind this lid, which, when the vessel is full, extends and seizes some of the neighbouring tendrils, and holds by them: and what is of the deepest interest, this tree grows in a marshy unhealthy soil, where the water is most impure; but distilled through its veins, it comes clear as from a cooling fountain.

In leaving this first part of the vegetable kingdom that is good for

E

food, remember also, my dear children, that the great mass of animal life that comes to our aid, both for food and clothing-from the ox and sheep down to the silk-worm that our young friends G. and F. keep so carefully-all depend on the vegetable kingdom for support.

But now, secondly, we come to the great field of nature for our Wardrobe for though our ancestors, the early Britons, once painted their bodies, like the poor African and New Zealander, and in winter covered themselves with coats of skins, yet that is not the case now; for if you look at your own clothes, dear children, from your little straw hats to your cotton stockings, this third day's creation has sent you the supply. The two great articles of clothing are linen and cotton; and both of these are of vegetable production,-Flax and Cotton.

Flax. You doubtless remember this plant in Ireland. Though we grew but little, yet it was enough to explain its character to you, both in its growth and manufacture. It is an annual, with a slender stem two feet high which consists of fine fibres, and it is this which is manufactured. The time of gathering the flax is in September; after which it is soaked in water for a few days, until partially rotted in the outer covering: then it is dried and beat hard with sticks, hackled, (or combed,) and then dressed;-threads of different degrees of fineness are afterwards spun from it, and these are manufactured into cambric and lace, and linen of every kind: so that shirts, tablecloths, sheets, trowsers, and a variety of other clothing, go to this pretty