Gazette Of The United States

Oct. 19. The chief advantage that has resulted to Europe from exploring the distant regions of another hemisphere, has been, the introduction of some of the most useful plants and fruits that are cultivated. Cherries were brought from Pontus by Lucullus, and planted first at Rome. The pear, the peach, the apricot, and the quince, were respectively brought from Epirus, Carthage, Armenia, and Syria; they were first transplanted in Italy, and afterwards disseminated by the Romans, through the northern and western parts of Europe, then under their dominion. The tree may be still alive, in China, that afforded the seeds from which the first sweet (China) oranges were reared in Portugal.

Among ourselves, in the beginning of the 16th century, we had neither salads, cabbages, turnips, carrots, nor any of those roots that constitute the principal part of the food of the poor. Hops, pippins, and pale gooseberries, were introduced into these kingdoms about the middle of the same century, and the cauli-flower plant was not known for a considerable time afterwards, though now it is to be found in no other part of the globe in equal perfection.

From the discovery of America, one of the most important advantages we derived, perhaps, was the introduction of the potatoe—a root by far the most useful of all others we have among us, and which, though it now forms almost the only food of the poor, was, little more than a century ago, confined to the gardens of the curious, and presented as a rarity.