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Show 274 DISS 'RT. II!. \..--y---1 H I s T o R y 0 F 1\1 E X 1 C 0. The nature and quality of a foil is befi: difcovered by the plants h'ch it fpontaneouOy produces without the affiftance of art. Let us w 1 com pat ·e , tllen , the 1)· roduCl:ions of Europe with thofeb, n· ot or f Arne- · b 1 f New pain " The reafon of there emg 10 many l'IC:l, ut Oil y 0 • . • " favages in America," f.1ys Montefquicu(l), " JS that t~~ land tl~ete 'tt produces of itfelf many fruits on which they can feed. . I bcheve that thofc advantages would not be obtained in Europe 1f :he b.nd were ]eft to itfelf without culture; it would produce nothmg but woods of oaks and other ufelcfs trees. "Examining," fays M. de Pa~, " the hiftory and origin of our plants, our kitchen-her~s, our frutt" trees, and alfo our grain!;, we find they are all fore1gn, and have " beetl tranfplanted from other climes to our own. We can eaGly " imagine the mifery of the ancient Gauls, and eve~ that ~f the. " Germans, in whofe land no fruit-trees were produced m the time of " Tacitus. If Germany was to re!l:ore the foreign vegetables whi.ch " are not originals of its foil or climate, almo!l: none would remam, '' nor would it preferve among its feeds which ferve for nouriiliment ''any but the wild poppy and the wild Vena(m)." ~hat Mr. de Paw openly confe!les refpeCl:ing Germany and Gaul, m1ght alfo be faid of the other ountries of Europe, and alfo of Greece and Italy, which fupplied the others. If Italy was obliged to refiore all tho~c fruits which do not belong originally to its foil, what would rem am but acorns ? Thefe terms, (malum Perjicum, malum Medicum, ./1.(/jrium, Punicum, Cido11ium, nux Pmtica, &c.) ferve to keep us in remembrance -that thofe fruits came from Afia and from Africa. " It is known,." fays Mr. Bufching (n), " that the befi and mofi beautiful fruits pa!led " from Italy into thofe countries which produce them at prefent. " Italy re eived them frorJ:l Greece, from Alia, and from Africa. " A ppl~s came to her from Egypt, and Greece; apricots from " Epirus; the pear from Alexandria, Numidia, and Greece; " the lemon and orange from Medea, Alfyria, and Periia ; the fig " from Alia; the. pomegranate from Carthage; the chefnut from " Catania in Magnetia, a province of Macedonia; almonds from " Afia to Greece, and thence to Italy; the walnut from Perfia; " olives (II Montcfquieu L'Efprit des Lnix, lib. xviii. chnp. 9• pan i. (n) llufching Gcograph. tom, i, (m) Rochcrch Philifollh • H I S T 0 R Y 0 F M E X I C 0. " .nlberts from Ponto; olives from Cyprus ; plums from Armenia; " the peach from Perfia; quinces from Cidonia in Candia to Greece, u and thence to Italy." Pliny fays, that men at firft fed upon nothing but acorns (o). This, though f:tlie with refpetl: to m(.!ll in gcn .. ral, appears to he true with refpeCl: to the fir!l: peoplers of Italy, at lcalt fu~h was the op'nion of the ancients, as their writings (hew. Pliny adds, that even in his time many people, from the want of grain, were cfl:ccme<.l rich in proportion to the quantity of acorns which they had, of the flour of which they made bread, as they do at prcfent in Norway of the bark .of the pine, and in other northern countries of bones of fi[hes ; which is no ftnall indication of their mif<.:ry. Bornare dcclan:s tlut all the beauties of European gardc.:ns arc foreign (p), and that the mofi beautiful flowers they have come from the Ea!l: (q). Mr. de Paw m<1kcs a more general confcOion of the ancient mifery of the Europeans, where he affirms that the ufcful plants whkh they have at prefent pa{fed from the fouth of Afia into Egypt, from Egypt to Greece, from Greece into Italy, from Italy into Gaul, and from thence into Germany (r); fo that the foil of Europe, with refpeet ·to native and original produCtions, is one of the poorefi and ~ barren in the world. On the contrary, how fruitful and abundant the American foil is, and cfpecially that of MeKico, in native plants proper for nourilhment and cloathing, and the other neceifaries of life, may be learned from reading the European authors who have written of the natural hifiory of that new world. This is the anfwer to that ridiculous comparifon which Herrera makes in his fir!l: Decad mentioned in the beginning of this di!lertation. " In America," " he fays, " there were not, as in Europe, u either lemons, oranges, pomegranates, figs, quinces, melons, "grapes, olives, fugar,' rice, or wheat." The Americans will then fay, firfi, that Europe had none of thofe fruits until they were tranfplanted there from Afia and Africa; fecondly, that at prefent thefe fruits grow in America as well as in Europe, and in general better of (o) Plin. Hill:. Nnt. lib. ii. z, cap, 56. V. Plante. (q)ld V. F.teur, (f>) Bomare DiClion. Univ, d'Hi.!l:oric Nat. (r) Rechcrch. Philifoph. part i, N n 2 their 275 DISS ERT. ur. '--v---1 |