Flora Virginica, of the celebrated Dr. Clayton published at Leyden, in 1762.

After this enumeration it is unnecessary to tell you that the farms of the country produce wheat, rye, barley, oats, buck-wheat, broom-corn, Indian corn, &c. This neighbourhood also cultivates hemp, flax, and hops; but is not favourable to cotton, indigo, rice, or tobacco. Those articles however are to be had down the Ohio, and are brought hither at an expense of about two-pence per pound. All kinds of vegetables and fruit grow in great luxuriance : the former especially are superior to those of Europe: but in consequence of the high price of labour, and the little attention paid to so interesting a branch of rural economy, they are not quite so cheap.

Much has been written and said respecting the arracktree: may it not be the same as the American cocoa; or perhaps rather the sugar maple; which for many years successively yields a large quantity of rich sweet sap, whence a fine sugar is made and spirit is distilled? It also might be worth inquiry whether the cotton of the country, which is different from that raised in the islands, be not the same as that of which the Chinese make their fine calicoes and muslins. It might be ascertained whether the common Indian hemp be not the same as the Chinese herba; and whether the silk gathered on the trees in China, be any other than the cocoons which are to be found in great plenty in many situations here on trees and bushes. The manufactured silk of the Chinese appears to be of different sorts, from which it is likely that they have different species of silk-worms. In this country, more to the southward, various sorts of cocoons are found on trees and shrubs, but those on the mulberry are the best: the cocoons of some of them, particularly such as feed on the sassafras, are large; and the substance which they produce, though not so fine, is much stronger than that of the Italian silkworm. Thus in my opinion there is reason to believe, that if experiments were made with these indigenous silk-worms, and if such as are most useful were propagated, this country might produce abundance of silk,

Here are also many trees, plants, roots, and herbs, to the medicinal virtues and uses of which we are total strangers. It is perhaps true that the fruit of the presemmon tree has been used in brewing of beer; but it is hardly

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known that one bushel of this fruit will yield above a gallon of proof spirit, of excellent quality and flavour. To what other uses in pharmacy the gum, bark, and roots of this tree, which are very astringent, may be applied, the public is also ignorant. The virtues of the magnolia, calalpa, and spice-wood, whose odours extend several miles, are not sufficiently ascertained, though they have been used by the Indians who consider them as excellent remedies in several disorders. There is another tree called the zamthoxelum, the bark of which is of such a peculiar quality, that the smallest bit of it, on being chewed, stimulates the glands of the mouth and tongue and occasions a flow of saliva equal to that of a salivation, while its action continues, and yet no rational experiments have been made to ascertain the advantages to be derived from such extraordinary properties. A variety of other trees might be mentioned, such as the sassafras; the wild cinnamon; the magnolia altisima; whose fragrant smell and aromatic taste prove that they possess medicinal qualities with which we are unacquainted, The shumack likewise requires examination. Perhaps its seed or berries, if not the wood itself, might be used in dying. The Indians mix its leaves with their tobacco to render it odorific and pleasant in smoaking. There is a species of it which yields a gum, that nearly, if not exactly, resembles the gum copal. Indeed there is reason to believe it is the very same.

Wines and raisins are imported from foreign parts at an extravagant price, while nature points out that few countries can be more proper than this for the production of the grape. Where lands are not cleared and the grape-vines not extirpated, it is impossible to resist observing and admiring the quantity which those natural vineyards present to the view. Farther down the Ohio, in the Indian territory and elsewhere, hills, vales, and plains, exhibit them in luxurious abundance. They grow spontaneously in every soil, and almost every climate in America; yet they are neglected, or unskilfully encouraged on a small scale.

It would be endless to recount all the other articles of the vegetable kingdom which are not investigated, though, with a little care and attention, they might become articles of commerce, and be of infinite use to the country, I must mention one plant, a native of this place, and which

grows in many places, known commonly by the name of Indian hemp. Its bark is so strong that the Indians make use of it for bow-strings. Could a method be found for separating and softening its fibres, so as to render it ductile and fit to be spun into thread, it might serve as a substitute for flax and hemp. This plant deserves to be cultivated on another account: the pod it bears contains a substance, that, from its softness and elasticity, might be used instead of the finest down. Its culture is easy, in as much as its root, which penetrates deep into the earth, survives the winter, and shoots out fresh stalks every spring. With the roots of plants, nearly unknown to us, the Indians stain wood, hair, and skins, of a beautiful colour, and which preserves its lustre for years, though exposed to all extremes of the weather. With the juice of herbs they relieve many diseases, heal wounds, and cure the bite of the most venemous snakes. A perfect knowledge of these simples, and of many others with which this country abounds, might be of great utility to mankind. Perhaps they are in as great abundance here as in China. The resemblance is manifest in the weather, the climate, and possibly in the soil and produce. Tobacco, phitolacca, the presemmon tree, the mulberry, with several others, are natives of China as they are also of most parts of America. Ginseng is gathered to the westward of Pekin, and has not been found in any other part of the world, except within the same degrees of latitude in this country, where ship-loads may be had at a short notice. These observations give grounds to believe that, if proper inquiries were made, many more of the native plants of China, and very possibly, the tea, so much in use, and now become so necessary a part of diet might be found in America.

Nor are the bowels of the earth sufficiently explored, notwithstanding the great encouragement received from the few experiments which have been made. There is here a great variety of clays, many of them so valuable as to induce a hope that, in time, porcelain equal to that brought from China, may be manufactured at home. The lands to the S. W. are so replete with nitre that, in various places, it appears like a hoar frost on the surface of the ground, and it is known that there are mines of saltpetre in the mountains. Besides the minerals I have mentioned, I have seen specimens of tin, antimony, besmuth ores, and

many others, the nature, use and properties of which are not sufficiently ascertained, What you have heard of the country originates from the narratives of hunters, the reports of ignorant travellers, and the dreams of persons who never left their native homes. Whereas it richly merits, that a society of learned naturalists should visit it, under the patronage of government, explore with care, anualize with skill, and return enriched with useful knowledge and profitable erudition, derived from the great book of nature, and not from uncertain information, or false hypotheses.

From these remarks concerning the riches yielded by its soil, I shall make rather an abrupt transition to what should rank as the far nobler produce of America, its inhabitants; I now speak only of its civilized parts, the United States; but on this subject, alas! it may be said with the greatest truth :

"Man is the only growth that dwindles here."

You may perhaps have heard so much of great American warriors, statesmen, politicians, churchmen, lawyers, physicians, astronomers, &c. that you are astonished to hear any one bold enough to dispute the fact. I say the fact, because in my correspondence with you, you may have already perceived my determination of making no general assertion but such as I can establish by actual evidence and decisive testimonies. I know of no great warriors in America. I cannot honour by that name even the men who overwhelmed a handful of British, and after several years combat obtained an unprofitable victory. In like manner I have known a shoal of herrings run down a whale on the coast of Cornwall, but it did not follow that I was to attribute this accident to the individual prowess of any of such contemptible animals, or to the absence of strength and capacity in the whale. This is so just a picture of the American war and its close, that I hasten to the statesmen of whom your papers speak so much: and who are they? I admit there are two in the country; the one after many years of public life devoted to a democratic party had the good sense again to become an apostate to monarchy, though he might have predicted that it would occasion his fall from the head of the government, and expose him to the most intemperate abuse of

the jacobinical faction. He met these events soon after with a manly fortitude, and Mr. John Adams now leads a private life, beloved by the admirers of good sense, and sound and practical political economy. There is no doubt but that he is the first statesman in America, for I trust you do not mean me to distinguish by that name the swarm of politicians who clog the wheels of the government, and who affect that they alone are competent to the direction of national affairs. The next statesman to Mr. Adams, is Mr. Jefferson. This gentleman has more theoretical talent than sterling political ability. And yet to shew some respect to the cry of the world, I call him a statesman, though he certainly has betrayed more derelection and tergiversation than ought to be accorded to so high and eminent a name. During the whole of his two precidencies he has been fluctuating between the interests of his coun try and his prejudice and attachment to the French government. The remains of good sense and the loud admonitions of others, have at length prevailed, and though he continues his affection to the gallic cock, still he ceases to hate and bully the British lion. There are in America no real politicians; the speeches you see in papers are made by Irish and Scotch journalists, who attend the Congress and Senate merely to take the spirit of their proceedings and clothe it with a language interesting to read. Attending the debates of Congress on a day when a subject of consequence was to be discussed, I left the house full of contempt of its eloquence and the paucity of talent employed for the support or condemnation of the question. Notwithstanding this I read in the next morning's gazette, "that a debate took place in the house last night of the most interesting nature; that it was agitated by all the talent in the country.-particularly by Messieurs Dayton, Morgan, Otty, Dawson, and whose brilliant speeches we lay before the public." Here followed certainly eloquent orations, a sentence of which never passed in the house. I had the misfortune to attend the Congress at another time, when the scene was more noisy and turbulent than at any of your electioneering hustings.-A Mr. Lyon, of Vermont, now of Kentucky, not being able to disprove the arguments of an opponent, spit directly in his face: this the other resented by running to the fire and catching up a hot poker, and in a short time nearly killed his opponents.