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the mean heat of the year exceeds | ishment, once or twice a year, by 75 deg. of Fahrenheit, the banana is digging round the roots. A spot of one of the most important and inter- a little more than a thousand square esting objects for the cultivation of feet will contain from thirty to forty man. All hot countries appear e- banana plants. A cluster of banaqually to favor the growth of its fruit; nas, produced on a single plant, ofand it has even been cultivated in ten contains from one hundred and Cuba, in situations where the ther- sixty to one hundred and eighty mometer descends to 45 deg. of Fah- fruits, and weighs from seventy to renheit. eighty pounds. But reckoning the The tree which bears this useful weight of a cluster only at forty fruit is of considerable size: it rises pounds, such a plantation would prowith an herbaceous stalk, about five duce more than four thousand pounds or six inches in diameter at the sur- of nutritive substance. M. Humboldt face of the ground, but tapering up-calculates that as thirty-three pounds wards to the height of fifteen or twen- of wheat and ninety-nine pounds of ty feet. The leaves are in a cluster at the top; they are very large, being about six feet long and two feet broad: the middle rib is strong, but the rest of the leaf is tender, and apt to be torn by the wind. The leaves grow with great rapidity after the The facility with which the banastalk has attained its proper height. na can be cultivated has doubtless The spike of flowers rises from the contributed to arrest the progress of centre of the leaves to the height of improvement in tropical regions.about four fect. At first the flowers In the new continent civilization first are inclosed in a sheath, but, as they commenced on the mountains, in a come to maturity, that drops off. soil of inferior fertility. Necessity The fruit is about an inch in diame-awakens industry, and industry calls ter, eight or nine inches long, and bent a little on one side. As it ripens it turns yellow; and when ripe, it is filled with a pulp of a luscious sweet

taste.

potatoes require the same space as that in which four thousand pounds of bananas are grown, the produce of bananas is consequently to that of wheat as 133: 1, and to that of potatoes as 44: 1.

forth the intellectual powers of the human race. When these are developed, man does not sit in a cabin, gathering the fruits of his little patch of bananas, asking no greater luxuThe banana is not known in an ries, and proposing no higher ends uncultivated state. The wildest of life than to eat and to sleep. He tribes of South America, who depend subdues to his use all the treasures upon this fruit for their subsistance, of the earth by his labor and his propagate the plant by suckers.- skill; and he carries his industry forEight or nine months after the suck- ward to its utmost limits, by the coner has been planted, the banana be-sideration that he has active duties gins to form its clusters; and the fruit may be collected in the tenth and eleventh months. When the stalk is cut, the fruit of which has ripened, a sprout is put forth, which again bears fruit in three months. The whole labor of cultivation which is required for a plantation of bananas is to cut the stalks laden with ripe fruit, and to give the plants a slight nour

to perform. The idleness of the poor Indian keeps him, where he has been for ages, little elevated above the inferior animals;-the industry of the European, under his colder skies, and with a less fertile soil, has surrounded him with all the blessings of society-its comforts, its affections, its virtues, and its intellectual riches.

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of the adjacent districts, surrounds, like a mighty rampart, an extensive plain; and, in the middle of this plain or cavity, an insulated conical hill rises to a considerable elevation. Several hundreds of these circular plains, most of which are considerably below the level of the surrounding country, may be perceived with a good telescope, on every region of the lunar surface. They are of all dimensions, trom two or three miles to 40 miles in diameter; and if they be adorned with verdure, they must present to the view of a spectator, placed among them, a more variegated, romantic, and sublime scenery than is to be found on the surface of our globe. An idea of some of these scenes may be acquired, by conceiving a plain of about a hundred miles in circumference, encircled with a range of mountains of various forms, three miles in perpendicular height, and having a mountain near the centre, whose top reaches a mile and a half above the level of the plain. From the top of this central mountain, the whole plain, with all its variety of objects, would be distinctly visible, and the view would appear to be bounded on all sides by a lofty ampitheatre of mountains, in every diversity of shape, rearing their summits to the sky. From the summit of the circular ridge, the conical hill in the centre, the opposite circular range, the plain below, and some of the adjacent plains which encompass the exterior ridge of the mountains, would form another variety of view; and a third variety would be obtained from the various aspects of the central mountain and the surrounding scenery, as viewed from the plains below.

The lunar mountains are of all sizes, from a furlong to five miles in perpendicular elevation. Certain luminous spots, which have been occasionally seen on the dark side of the moon, seem to demonstrate that fire exists in this planet; Dr. Herschel and several other astronomers suppose they are volcanoes in a state of eruption. The bright spots on the moon are the mountainous regions; the dark spots are the plains, or more level parts of her surface. There may probably be rivers, or small lakes, on this planet; but there are no seas or large collections of water. It appears highly probable, from the observations of Schroeter, that the moon is encompassed with an atmosphere, but no clouds, rain, or snow, seem to exist in it. The illuminating power of the light derived from the moon, according to the experiments made by Leslie, is about 100,000th part of the illuminating power of the sun.

The moon always presents the same face to us; which proves that she revolves round her axis in the same time that she revolves round the earth. As this ORB derives its light from the sun, and reflects a portion of it upon the earth, so the earth performs the same office to the moon. A spectator on the lunar surface would behold the earth like a luminous orb, suspended in the vault of heaven, presenting a surface about thirteen times larger than the

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