pawpaw, which grows in tropical climates, both of the western and eastern world, are each rendered remarkable for the number of other useful properties they possess, besides contributing their services, in the way of most suitable food, to the inhabitants of those climes, in which they severally grow. During a considerable portion of the year, the bread-fruit-tree affords the chief sustenance of the Society-Islanders, it being in season eight months of the year. The natives of these islands collect it without the smallest trouble; they have only to climb the trees to gather its fruit. A kind of cloth is fabricated from the bark; the leaves are converted into towels and wrappers; the wood is made into boats and houses, and a kind of cement is prepared by boiling the juice in cocoa-nut oil. Nearly every part of the date-tree may be converted to some useful purpose. A considerable part of the inhabitants of Egypt, of Arabia, and Persia, subsist almost entirely on its fruit, and it is also esteemed for its medicinal virtues. From the leaves they make couches, baskets, mats, bags, and brushes; from the branches, cages and fences; from the fibres of the boughs, thread, ropes, and rigging; from the sap, a spirituous liquor; from the wood, which also furnishes fuel, the beams and rafters of houses, as well as some implements of husbandry, are constructed. The stones are ground to make oil, and the refuse is given to the cattle. The shell of the fruit of the calabash is employed in the manufacture of water-vessels, goblets, and cups of almost every description. So hard and

close-grained is the calabash, that, when it contains any kind of fluid, it may even, it is said, be put on the fire without injury. A medicinal juice is extracted from this useful plant; and of it, the Indians construct some of their musical instruments.

THE Cocoa-nut-tree supplies the inhabitants of the countries in which it grows, with bread, milk, and oil; it affords them a strong spirit, vinegar, and barm; timber to build their huts, and thatch to cover them. The shell is a useful article among their household vessels, and the coarse fibrous husk surrounding it, as well as the bark itself, is made into cloth and cordage. Of the wood of the cocoa-nut-tree, sewed together with a yarn spun from the bark, a vessel is constructed; of the same wood, the mast is formed; of the bark and fibrous covering of the shell, the sails are woven ; so that from the different parts of this valuable vegetable, the whole vessel, as well as the habita

tions of the natives of the cocoa-nut islands, are completed. There is a fibrous substance in the leaves of the cabbage-tree, which is sometimes spun like hemp into different kinds of cordage. The sockets and grooves, formed by the broad part of the footstalks of the leaves, are used by the negroes as cradles for their children. The trunks, when cleared of the pith, serve as waterpipes and gutters, and of the pith a kind of sago is manufactured. The magney or mati-tree affords to the natives of New Spain, where it grows copiously, water, wine, oil, vinegar, honey, syrup, thread, needles, &c. In short, there are no less than nineteen services, which this tree, though small, yields to the inhabitants. The leaves serve for covering their houses; out of its roots strong and thick ropes are made; and a fine yarn may be spun out of the fibres of the leaves; which, being converted into cloth, serves for the purpose of clothing. The bark of the pawpaw-tree is manufactured by the Indians into cordage. The leaves are used as soap, and the stem is converted into water-pipes. It is said that a small quantity of the juice, when rubbed upon butcher's meat, renders it tender, without hurting its quality. The plantain and the banana, the sago-palm and the sugar-cane of the tropical regions, as well as the fig-tree of the east, and the sugar-maple of North America, and the cow-tree mentioned by Humboldt, and the butter-tree of Mungo Park, and the coffee and the tea-tree, and an endless variety of others, contribute to our wants in the form of food.

We have already noticed the pitcher-plant, besides which, there are several others, which yield a supply of refreshing water. However, we must not let these remarkable instances carry away our thoughts from the no less useful, though much more common, blessings of Providence, in these respects. But it is not only in the form of meat and drink, that these vegetable appendages on the surface of the earth administer their services; for it is well known, that we are indebted to the cotton-plants of America and the Indies, for our calicoes and muslins, our fustians and corduroys, and other articles of clothing.

THE Æolian harp is a long box or case of light wood, with harp or violin strings extended on its face. These are generally tuned in perfect unison with each other, or to the same pitch, as it is expressed, except one serving as bass, which is

thicker than the others, and vibrates only half as fast; but when the harp is suspended among trees, or in any other situation where the fluctuating breeze may reach it, each string, according to the manner in which it receives the blast, sounds either entire, or breaks into some of the simple divisions above described; the result of which is, the production of the most pleasing combination and succession of sounds that ear has ever listened to, or fancy, perhaps, conceived. After a pause, this fairy harp may be heard beginning with a low and solemn note, like the bass of distant music in the sky: the sound then swells as if approaching, and other tones break forth, mingling with the first and with each other: in the combined and varying strain, sometimes one clear note predominates, and sometimes another, as if single musicians alternately led the band; and the concert often seems to approach and again to recede, until with the unequal breeze it dies away, and all is hushed again. It is no wonder that the ancients, who understood not the nature of air, nor consequently even of simple sound, should have deemed the music of the Eolian harp supernatural, and, in their warm imaginations, should have supposed that it was the strain of invisible beings from above, come down in the stillness of evening or night, to commune with men in a heavenly language of soul, intelligible to both. But even now, that we understand it well, there are few persons so insensible to what is delicate and beautiful in nature, as to listen to this wild music without

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