1252. Maize, or Indian corn (Zea mays), has been dispersed in the Old World from the New; and also a more important product, the potato (Solanum tuberosum), the use of which now extends from the extremity of Africa to Lapland. In Chili, the native country of the plant, it occurs at present in a wild state. The Spaniards imported it into Spain, and from thence it was communicated to Italy. It was first made known in England at a subsequent period from Virginia, having been received there from the Spanish colonists in South America, as it is not a native of intervening Mexico.
1253. The grape-vine, so extensively spread over Europe, is probably not indigenous in any part of it. It chiefly owes its diffusion there to the Romans, who received it from the Greeks, to whom it most likely immediately came from the country between the Black and Caspian Seas. The Romans introduced most of the finer European fruit-trees, some from Africa, as the pomegranate, but the great majority from Western Asia, as the or ange, fig, cherry, peach, apricot, apple, and pear. A variety of the plum, the damson, or damascene, came from the neighbourhood of Damascus during the Crusades. The name of the damask-rose points to the importation of the plant from the same quarter into Europe.
"To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven."—Ecclesiastes iii.
The ocean as well as the land has different botanical regions; and changes of the vegetation are observed with the depth analogous to the variations of terrestrial plants with the height. Marine vegetation seems to have its vertical extent determined by the range of light in water, which varies with the power of the sun and the transparency of the water.
CHAPTER LXIII.
1254. What are vegetable gums?
Vegetable gums are secretions of plants which are generally soluble in water, and which subserve various useful purposes. Gum Arabic is one of the most important of this class of vegetable productions.