SKETCHES OF THE ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE PRODUCTIONS OF AMERICA. BY MARY ROBERTS, AUTHOR OF "DOMESTICATED ANIMALS" AND "WILD ANIMALS PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE COMMITTEE OF GENERAL LITERATURE AND EDUCATION, LONDON: SOLD AT THE DEPOSITORY OF THE SOCIETY, AND AT THE PUBLISHER'S, JOHN W. PARKER, WEST STRAND, M. DCCC. XXXIX. 271. PREFACE. WRITERS On Natural History have spoken concerning the animals and plants of different zones and climates indiscriminately; I venture to separate them, and to select from among the forests and savannas of the New World such as most especially illustrate the wisdom and beneficence of their Creator. These sketches will not be confined merely to the details of Natural History; they will comprise whatever is most beautiful or curious, either in the scenery by which the subjects of them were surrounded, or in their wonderful adaptation to the sites which they are designed to occupy. I may not venture to assert that this idea is exclusively my own, yet, assuredly, it has not been generally adopted; for the history of plants has, in most cases, been separately treated, that of animals also, as well as scenery. But the uniting of them will better suit my purpose; for how much more beautiful is the effect produced by the concentration of many rays of light than by the separation of one prismatic colour, however brilliant. TABLE OF CONTENTS. Page ACACIA, or LOCUST-TREE-Account of - When first AGAVES-Description of-Where found-Juice of the ANCIENT MOUNDS near St. Louis-Moral reflections 100 APOLOCERINE GROUP-Three species of-Where most ATMOSPHERIC PHENOMENON observed in the Andes |