The potato
The potato is another very remarkable plant which was introduced into Europe from America, and which has exerted a vast influence - though in this case the influence is a wholly salutary one - upon the condition of mankind. It is supposed that by providing a cheap and abundant sustenance for the lower classes of people, it has actually added many millions to the population of Europe.
It came in the first instance from South America, and it is said that originally the tubers of the plant were very small, and far less nutritious than they are now. The change has been produced by cultivation. It is always found that when man selects any plant growing in a state of nature, and takes it under his care, with a view of using it for food, nature comes forward to meet him, as it were, and aid him in his effort, by giving the plant so chosen a new and fuller development in respect to the qualities which fit it for his purposes. Thus the apple, which was small, hard, and sour in its native woods, becomes large, tender, sweet and juicy when man chooses it for his food, and transfers it to his gardens. Similar changes take place in the grape, the peach, the pear, the potato, and in almost all other plants that produce food for man.
When, therefore, a new plant is discovered in some remote and partially explored country, it is not always easy at first to decide upon its value, for it is not known what effect cultivation will have upon it. There is a very important society in France, called the Society of Acclamation, the object of which is to bring new plants and animals from remote regions of the earth to Paris, with the view of ascertaining by experiment what the effect of a new climate and artificial culture will have upon them. Several important discoveries have already been made by this society, and it is prosecuting its researches with increased vigor, and on a more and more extended scale every year.
The potato met with almost as much opposition at its first introduction into Europe as tobacco. The opposition in this case, however, was found to be a prejudice, arising simply from the fact that the plant itself and the use of it for food were something new. The poor people especially would have nothing to do with it. It was a food fit only for beasts, they said, and they were determined that it should not be forced upon them. These prejudices have long since disappeared, and the once despised tuber is now a universal favorite all over the civilized world.
The Magnolia
When the European discoverers first landed upon the American shores, the grandeur and beauty of the native forests seem to have impressed them more than anything else that they beheld. Among the trees which chiefly contributed to this magnificence was the magnolia, which was found growing very profusely in all the southern regions of what now form the United States. Some species of this splendid class of plants grow in the Middle and even in the Northern States, but in this latter locality they are rare.
The magnolia grandiflora, so called, when in perfection, is one of the most magnificent trees in the world. It grows, it is said, sometimes to the height of seventy feet. It leaves are evergreen, and are polished on the surface, and at the proper season of the year the whole tree is covered with a profusion of immense white flowers, which bloom so conspicuously in the midst of the masses of verdure which surround them as to strike the eye of the stranger with wonder and delight.
There are a great many different species of the magnolia in America, which vary much in minor particulars, such as in the size of the plant itself and in the magnitude and fragrance of the flowers. There is one species which bears leaves two or three feet long, with flowers the cups of which are sometimes nearly a foot in diameter. The flowers of most of he species are very fragrant, some of them so much so that a tree, it is said, will scent the air for a distance of three miles. In some of the species the plants are small and shrub-like in form, but still producing flowers of extreme fragrance and beauty. There is one which is called the weaver laurel, which bears leaves and flowers of extreme elegance, and diffuses a fragrance so strong that it perfumes the atmosphere for a great distance around.
Since the discovery of America various species of the magnolia have been transplanted to Europe, and cultivated there in botanical gardens and in private pleasure grounds, where they are regarded as great curiosities. None of them were known in Europe until they were carried thither from America, but since that time it has been found that some species of the plant occur in China and Japan, though they are not identical with any of those found in the new world.
The Mahogany Tree
Next to the potato, which has so largely increased the means of sustenance for the masses of the population in Europe, and the cotton plant, which supplies so many millions with clothing, perhaps the most useful of the native productions of the American soil, in respect to the welfare and enjoyment of mankind at large, is the mahogany tree. This is a very large forest tree, which grows in vast numbers in the West India Islands and in certain parts of Central America. It is characterized by a certain combination of qualities which render it superior as a material for making furniture, and for cabinet work in general, to any other wood in the world. These qualities are its beautiful color, its hardness, making it susceptible of a fine polish, and the stability of its fibers, that is, its freedom from all tendency to warp, shrink, or split. It grows moreover in very massive trees, from which planks of almost any size may be sawed, and logs of it, containing vast quantities of the wood, can be cut and transported with great facility. Wood has thus sometimes been procured from a single tree to the value of four or five thousand dollars.
It was more than two hundred years after America was discovered before mahogany began to be introduced into Europe as an article of consumption, but now it is universally employed there, and the demand for it is so large that the British maintain extensive settlements in Honduras, solely for the purpose of cutting and shipping it.
The work of cutting the trees and floating them down the rivers to the sea is performed by the natives of the country, acting under the superintendence of Europeans. These natives work in gangs of thirty or forty together. When a tree has been selected to be felled, they build a staging against the side of it, ten or twelve feet from the ground - the part of the stem below that point not being valuable. The tree is then cut through just above the staging, and when it has fallen the branches are lopped off, and the stem is divided into suitable lengths for convenient transportation. The logs are floated down the little streams on the banks of which they grew to the larger rivers, and are there made up into rafts, which, guided by skilled raftsmen, are carried down by the currents to the ports whence they are to be shipped to foreign countries. Some of the logs thus transported are of immense size and of great value.
Such are a few of the most characteristic and celebrated American plants that were brought to the notice of mankind after this continent was discovered. In the next chapter we shall consider some of the most remarkable animals.
Chapter 4. Remarkable Animals
The Beaver
One of the most remarkable of the animals found in America is the beaver. Species nearly resembling the American beaver formerly existed in the old world, but they have long been nearly or quite extinct. The class of animals to which the beaver belongs is common all over the world, namely, the class of Rodentia, which means gnawing animals. The beaver is the greatest gnawer of them all.
The Beaver's Teeth