NEW PLANTS.
The possible influence a new plant might exercise on civilization is a subject that many imaginations have played with. A mighty Egyptian King once toured the world to spread the gospel of barley ; and this modest grain, that bows its head as humbly as any violet, brought perhaps the greatest revolution in history ; but other plants have been hardly less revolutionary ; wheat, rice, maize, bamboo, sugar, cotton, rubber, and the olive. We have been told of late years that several new plants promised untold wealth, such as Brotex and Erbifex ; and though they have belied their promises, in which the very elect believed, their failure has not destroyed the possibility that the true wealth of the world may one day be immensely enhanced by some new fibre, or juice. Indeed, it is a quite reasonable prophecy that some day the lavish tropics will supply the factories of the world if they do not become the actual factory.
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