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boundaries. Wheat extends through the old continent from England to Thibet; but does not succeed well in the west of Scotland; nor does it thrive better in the torrid zone than in the polar regions; within the tropics wheat, barley, and oats are not cultivated, excepting above the level of the sea; the vine succeeds only where the autumnal temperature is between fifty and sixty degrees. In both hemispheres it cannot be profitably cultivated within thirty degrees of the equator, unless in elevated situations, or in islands, as Teneriffe.

The limits of the cultivation of maize and olives in France are parallel to those which bound the vine and corn in succession to the north. In the north of Italy, west of Milan, we first meet with the cultivation of rice; which extends over all the southern part of Asia. In the new world cotton can be cultivated to latitude forty, and in the old to forty-six. The sugar-cane, the plantain, the mulberry, the betel nut, the indigo tree, the tea tree, flourish in India and China, and in America and the West Indies several of these plants have been successfully cultivated. The bread fruit tree begins to be cultivated in the Manillas, and extends through the Pacific; the sago palm in the Moluccas, and the cabbage tree in the Pelew Islands.

SWIFTNESS OF BIRDS.

THE smallest bird, says M. Virey, can fly several leagues in an hour; the hawk goes commonly at the rate of a league in four minutes, or above forty miles an hour. A falcon of Henry II. was flown from Fontainbleau, and 'found, by its ring, at Malta next day. One sent from the Canaries to Andalusia returned to Teneriffe in sixteen hours, a distance of near seven hundred miles, which it must have gone at the average rate of twenty-four miles an

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hour. Gulls go seven hundred miles out to sea and return daily; and frigate birds have been found at twelve hundred miles from any land. Upon their migration, he states as a known fact that cranes go and return at the same date, without the least regard to the state of the weather, which shows, no doubt, if true, a most peculiar instinct; but these, and, indeed, all facts which we find stated by a writer so much addicted to painting and colouring, must be received with a degree of suspicion, for which no one but M. Virey is to be blamed. The accounts, however, of the swiftness of birds I can well credit, from an experiment which I made when travelling on a railway. While going at the rate of thirty miles an hour, I let fly a bee; it made its circles as usual, and surrounded us easily. Now, if there was no current of air or draft to bear it along, this indicated a rate of ninety miles an hour; and even allowing for a current, the swiftness must have been great. I should, however, wish to repeat the experiment before being quite sure of so great a swiftness in so small an insect. -Lord Brougham's Dissertations on Science.

If we are placed here in a state of probation it is reasonable that our understanding, as well as our will, should be brought to the trial. But how shall the Almighty proceed to make proof either of the self-sufficiency, or the diffidence of our understanding? No happier method could certainly be adopted than that of pointing us to such truths as are partly manifest and partly concealed, that we may search them out with diligence, if there be a possibility of comprehending them; or, if placed above the highest stretch of our faculties, expect with patience a future revelation of them.-J. Fletcher.

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THE history of commerce does not, perhaps, present a parallel to the circumstances which have attended the introduction of tea into Great Britain and America. This leaf was first imported into Europe by the Dutch East India Company, in the early part of the seventeenth century; but it was not till the year 1666 that a small quantity was brought over from Holland to this country by the Lords Arlington and Ossory; and yet, from a period earlier than any to which the memories of any of the existing generation can reach, tea has been one of the principal necessaries of life among all classes of the community. To provide a sufficient supply of this aliment, many thousand tons of the finest mercantile navy in the world are annually employed in trading with a people by whom all dealings with foreigners are merely tolerated; and from this recently acquired taste, a very large and easily collected revenue is obtained by the state.

The tea-plant is indigenous to China or Japan, and probably to both. It has been used among the natives of the former country from time immemorial; and, from the age

of Confucius, has been the constant theme of praise with their poets. It is only in a particular tract of the Chinese empire that the plant is cultivated; and this tract, which is situated on the eastern side, between the 30th and 33d degrees of north latitude, is distinguished by the natives as the "tea country." The more northern part of China would be too cold; and farther south the heat would be too great. There are, however, a few small plantations to be seen near to Canton.

The tree or shrub whence the tea of commerce is derived is the thea of botanists. There is only one species of this plant; and although it has been said by some writers that there are two varieties, differing in the breadth of their leaves, this assertion is as confidently denied by others, who affirm that the difference discernible in the qualities of the dried leaves is owing to the period of their growth at which they are gathered, and to some variations in the methods employed for curing them.

The Chinese give to the plant the name of tcha or tha. It is propagated by them from seeds, which are deposited in rows four or five feet asunder, and so uncertain is their vegetation, even in their native climate, that it is found necessary to sow as many as seven or eight seeds in every hole. The ground between each row is always kept free from weeds, and the plants are not allowed to attain a higher growth than admits of the leaves being conveniently gathered. The first crop of leaves is not collected until the third year after sowing; and when the trees are six or seven years old, the produce becomes so inferior that they are removed to make room for a fresh succession.

The flowers of the tea tree are white, and somewhat resemble the wild rose of our hedges; these flowers are succeeded by soft green berries or pods, containing each from one to three white seeds. The plant will grow in either low or elevated situations, but always thrives best

and furnishes leaves of the finest quality when produced in light stony ground.

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The leaves are gathered from one to four times during the year, according to the age of the tree. Most commonly there are three periods of gathering; the first commences about the middle of April; the second at midsummer; and the last is accomplished during August and September. The leaves that are earliest gathered are of the most delicate colour and most aromatic flavour, with the least portion of either fibre or bitterness. Leaves of the second gathering are of a dull green colour, and have less valuable qualities than the former; while those which are last collected are of a dark green, and possess an inferior value. The quality is farther influenced by the age of the wood on which the leaves are borne, and by the degree of exposure to which they have been accustomed; leaves from young wood, and those most exposed, being always the

best.

The leaves, as soon as gathered, are put into wide shallow baskets, and placed in the air, or wind, or sunshine, during some hours. They are then placed on a flat castiron pan, over a stove heated with charcoal, from a half to three quarters of a pound being operated on at one time.

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