"Seville," the bitter variety, and "St. Michael's," give names to others; the last is smaller, with a smooth rind and sugary pulp.

III. Propagation, Cultivation, Gathering, &c.

Grown in common with fruit of the same species -the citron, lemon, lime, shaddock-in groves:

"Bear me, Pomona! to thy citron groves;

To where the lemon and the piercing lime,
With the deep orange glowing through the green,
Their lighter glories blend."

Orangeries of various sizes; some contain a thousand trees:

"Where hangs in shades the orange bright
Like golden lamps in a green night.

Propagated from the pips or seeds (may be raised in a flower-pot in a warm room); planted in rows; in the hottest countries shaded by hedges; is seven years reaching maturity; attains a great age; blossoms in March and April; fruit of the former year then thoroughly ripe; that exported gathered previously, when only partly ripened, in November and December; ripens on the passage; wrapped in maize-leaves; packed in chests of various sizes, containing from five hundred to a thousand. Packing is an interesting sight; children spread out the leaves, men wrap an orange in each; others place in the boxes, which, when filled, the carpenter covers with thin slips of wood; removed to the shore on asses' backs. A hundred wholesale consists of a hundred and ten. Trees very prolific one sometimes yields twenty-six thousand; in the Spanish peninsula the trees are smaller and the crops less.

IV. Trade and Statistics.

Three hundred millions imported into England annually; sixty millions sold in London-fifteen millions in the streets only; three thousand streetsellers in the metropolis. Contrast this present large supply and sale with that of the fourteenth century, when the purchase of "seven oranges" of a Spanish merchant by Queen Eleanor was thought worthy of record in her household book. Two thousand vessels are engaged, carrying two hundred thousand boxes, in the Azores' trade.

Note.-"I never experienced the bewilderment, the intoxication, which accompanied my visit to the gardens of Milis. Here there is nothing but oranges-not, if you please, fruit placed at regular intervals along the branches and encompassed by verdure, but large clumps of thirty or forty oranges, dragging the branch which bears them towards the earth. Do not imagine a group of orange trees here and there, the perfume of which comes and goes as you approach and leave it, but try to realise the idea of a wood, a veritable forest! As far as the eye can reach under this balmy forest it meets with nothing but oranges

oranges in the fore-ground, oranges in the halfdistance, oranges gild the horizon! The perfume of the blossoms intoxicates you. A gathering is a very simple process. A cloth is spread under a tree; a man, having climbed the branches, precipitates the golden harvest to the ground, whence arises an indescribable aroma. Of the forty-eight hours at Milis I spent at least thirty in the orange woods, gathering a store of sweet perfume for less happy times, and envying Sardinia so great a treasure."

LESSON XIX.-RICE.

I. Appearance, &c.

NOTICE the sources whence man obtains foodthe animal and vegetable kingdoms; question out a few products of the latter, and lead the children to think of the subject of the lesson. Let them describe it as sold in this country. Small white grains; brittle; opaque; very absorbent; pulverable; contains much starch, eighty-five parts in every hundred. The produce of a plant something like barley; grains grow each on a separate stalk, springing from one stem; crowned with an awn or beard.

II. Localities of Production.

Native of Asia; extensively cultivated in both worlds; e. g.:

1. Asia. China (middle and southern parts), Arabia, Ceylon, India (especially Bengal; why ?), Japan, Persia, Sumatra, &c.

2. Africa. Egypt, Madagascar.

3. Europe.-Italy (Lombardy, Piedmont-the northern limit), and Spain.

4. America.- Southern States, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Virginia; South America, West Indies.

Many varieties; generally known by the name of the districts producing them-e. g., Patna, Madagascar, East Indian, and Carolina. Cargo-rice, very inferior; imported as ballast. Relate the circumstances of its introduction to America; 66 a ship returning from India was cast upon the shores of Carolina, some bags of rice being found among its stores, a trial was made of sowing it." The experiment proved successful beyond expectation.

III. Cultivation, Harvest, and Preparation.

Humid soil best; low plains traversed by large rivers well adapted; mean temperature required, seventy-four degrees. Methods of cultivation vary; among the Chinese, the seed is soaked in manured water; sown after the heavy rains upon the fields inundated by the rivers-what effect is produced by these floods upon the land? The young plants appear in about two days; when grown to the height of six or seven inches, they are pulled up, tops cut off, roots washed, and replanted in rows about twelve inches apart. In America and Europe a system of artificial irrigation is adopted; grain sown in March in trenches; plantation inundated till the seeds sprout; water drawn off, and the ground allowed to dry; in about a month (the plants being three inches high) the grounds are again flooded, to destroy the weeds, &c.; in July, for the third time, the operation is repeated, and the rice ripens standing in the water. Great ravages are made upon the green corn by the ricebird. Reaped with a sickle having a saw-like edge; bound into bundles; removed; grain trodden out by cattle or beaten in mortars. First crop harvested in May and June, the second in October and November. The gathering is both disagreeable and unhealthy on account of the exhalations arising from the damp, muddy soil. The outer husks removed from the grain by a mill, the inner separated by means of large pestles and mortars; screened to remove the broken grain; packed in casks; exported or stored for home consumption.

IV. Uses.

Very nutritious food; chief sustenance of many

millions among the Asiatic nations-in China and India eaten at all meals. The staple food of the native tribes in India and negro population of America. Highly esteemed by the Chinese; when informed that Britain produced no rice, they regarded its inhabitants as objects of pity, and expressed surprise that they could possibly exist without it. Notice that its dryness prevents fermentation, and adapts it for food in hot climates. Compare it with wheat and barley-both less fitted for this purpose. Wine obtained by fermentation from it. In England made into puddings, bread, blanc-mange, &c. Used in the manufacture of starch.

LESSON XX. — SUGAR.

I. Appearance, Qualities, &c.

COMPOSED of small crystals; fusible; combustible ; emits a bluish flame; sweet taste; soluble (question out other substances possessing the same qualitysalt, glue, soap, gum, &c. ; and contrast with insoluble substances-sand, glass, stone, sponge); imported into England; manufactured; natural sugar, honey. Of great importance: "We consume it in millions of tons; we employ thousands of ships in transporting it; millions of men spend their lives in cultivating the plant from which it is extracted; and the fiscal duty imposed upon it adds largely to the revenue of every established government. Sold under various forms-e. g., raw or moist, and loaf.

II. Substances from which it is extracted.

Notice its abundance; sources very varied; found in carrots, turnips, potatoes figs, dates,