stance of fruits in all countries, and at all seasons, as affording a delicious seasoning to many kinds of food; but we are not so generally aware that it is capable of yielding the most incongruous substances. Yet such is the fact. It is both phosphoric and combustible, emitting, when exposed to the action of a slow fire, a blue flame, and a white one in proportion to the degree of heat. It produces, by distillation, a quantity of acid and oil, of gas and charcoal. When subjected to the action of nitrous acid, oxalic acid is readily produced; and Lavoisier, who paid much attention to the subject, assigned three principles in sugar, hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon. The expressed juice, if left to itself, passes into the acetous fermentation, and yields, when decomposed, after the lapse of two or three months, a considerable quantity of glutinous matter. This matter, when distilled, gives a portion of ammonia, and if the juice be exposed to the spirituous fermentation, a wine is obtained analogous to cider. This also, after being kept in bottles for some months, and then distilled, yields a portion of brandy.

Who that observed a field of sugar canes, lifting up their graceful plumes of white feathers, and waving their long narrow leaves, as if to welcome the soft summer breeze, would conjecture that they contained within them, laid up as in a store-house, such heterogeneous materials, each of which are only waiting to be called forth by the skill of man, --that oil and acid, a gas, and charcoal, ammonia, and wine, are all contained in this jointed reed; sugar also, that pleasant substance to which we are indebted for many valuable and important results;

QUALITIES OF SUGAR.

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and especially for yielding a greater quantity of nourishment in a given quantity of matter, than can be obtained from any other with which we are acquainted?

This fact is well known to the Indians, who carry it with them in their excursions from home. When unable to obtain cane-sugar, they mix a certain quantity of such as they collect from the maple, with an equal quantity of dried and powdered Indian corn, in its milky state. This mixture is packed in little baskets, which are frequently wetted in travelling, without injuring the sugar; and a few spoonfuls mixed with half a pint of spring water, affords a pleasant and invigorating meal. From the degree of strength which is thus imparted by a small quantity of sugar, it might probably be given with much advantage to horses, in places and under circumstances which make it difficult to obtain for them their natural food. Certain it is, that a pound of sugar, mixed with grass, or hay, has supported the strength and spirits of a horse, through a day's labour, in one of the West India islands: and that a larger quantity given alone, fattened both horses and cattle, in Hispaniola, for a period of several months, when, during war time, the exportation of sugar and the importation of grain were prevented, from the want of ships. Sugar also is beneficial as a medicine, and hence a love for this aliment is implanted in young children, as if to save them from many juvenile disorders. Dr. Rush knew a gentleman in Philadelphia, who early adopted this opinion, and who, by indulging a large family in the use of sugar preserved them from complaints, to which

their neighbours of the same age were liable. Sir John Pringle remarked, that the plague has never been known in any country where sugar composes a material part in the diet of the inhabitants.

Sugar, then, is valuable both as food and medicine. It is a pleasant gift for the use of man, and while the symmetry and beauty of the jointed reed delights the eye, the saccharine matter which it yields, is highly grateful to the taste. We have also to notice another goodly gift of the Creator to mankind. This is the Cotton Tree, whose soft downy substance is manufactured into quilts and tapestry, waistcoats and curtains, into muslin, and various kinds of clothing. Occasionally, it is mixed with wool, sometimes with silk, and even with gold itself. Naturalists mention several species of the cotton plant, that are found in almost every soil and situation. Humboldt states, that the larger species, which attain to the magnitude of trees, require a mean annual temperature of 68° Fahrenheit, while the shrubby kind may be cultivated with success, under a mean temperature of from sixty to sixtyfour degrees.

Beautiful is the appearance of a cotton plantation, in favourable seasons, and when the cotton is fully ripe. The glossy dark green leaves of the plant are finely contrasted with the full white cottony globes which are profusely scattered among the branches, and which often suddenly appear, as if hung on high by an invisible hand. This effect is produced by the spontaneous bursting of the capsule, and the consequent appearance of its snowy contents. Those who are employed to collect the

pods, go forth to their labours early in the morning, before the sun has risen, lest exposure to its beams should injure the delicate whiteness of the cotton.

One species distinguished by the name of Gossypium religiosum, is generally cultivated in the Mauritius. Of this there are two varieties: in one the cotton is extremely white; in the other, of a yellowish brown, and from this the stuff called nankeen is made. We may therefore presume that the religiosum is a native of China, whence nankeens are generally obtained. But the Gossypium her

baceum, or common herbaceous cotton plant, is most generally cultivated; and this divides itself into annual and perennial plants. The first is herbaceous, and rarely attains to more than eighteen or twenty inches in height. The pods, when fully ripe, open simultaneously, and exhibit to view the fleecy cotton, in which the seeds are securely bedded. At this season, the effect is extremely pleasing when seen from a rising ground. A bed of waving verdure extends on either side, relieved with large yellow flowers, having each a purple centre, while here and there, tufts of white are seen amid the foliage. The next day, or after the lapse of a few hours, or even while the spectator is looking on, suddenly every bush and branch appears as if covered with balls of the purest white, waving in the breeze, which not unfrequently carries with it a tuft of cotton, as if in triumph. This common herbaceous plant is sown, and reaped, like corn; the time of gathering, in hot countries, occurs twice during the year, in colder climates only once; that which is imported into England from Georgia, and is called the sea-island cotton, bears a double price to that of any other country. The perennial plants which have been left to grow, rise far above the annual in height and size: they frequently attain to a considerable elevation, and both at the time of flowering, and when the pods are fully ripe, produce a remarkable effect.

The Jatropha manihot, bitter cassada, or manioc, also grows profusely in Quito, as well as generally throughout South America, and has been long cultivated in the West Indies for the sake of its nutri