Let.3.]                NATURAL  HISTORY.                          4g
fevers, a common complaint in tropical climates ; tama-
jrinds are also good in diarrhaeas, and are much com-
mended in a flux of the haemorrhoids, from a billious
#ud acrimonious blood.
Formerly Maize or Indian Corn, was cultivated here
in such quantities as not only to supply their own
consumption, but that of the Island of Margaritta,
and other places. The ear of this corn is certainly a
_great natural curiosity. It is generally from eight to
ten inches, and sometimes a foot long, consisting of
several rows of grain, commonly nine or ten, according
to the goodness of the soil, each row containing about
forty grains; but, in Tercera, one of the Azores or
Western. Islands, I have seen ears which commonly
measured thirty inches, with twelve rows of grain.
The ear is wonderfully clothed by the agency of the
Almighty Being. He, indeed, is incomprehensible,
but without him it is impossible for any thing to be in-
telligible, and when, as an intelligent author observes *,
his interposition is once supposed, it is easy to conceive
the possibility of producing all things. He alone was
capable of forming the matter which constitutes all
bodies, and none but himself could extract out of this
matter several elements, each of which is perpetually
the same, although their different combinations form an
infinite variety of bodies.. The Almighty then, in the
plenitude of his wisdom, has furnished jhe generality of
seeds with a covering of wood, and has not thought it
proper to afford one of equal strength to the substance
of fruits, which in reality is no more than a covering or
defence to the seed. His wisdom and special care are
manifest, when we examine the care he has taken, bj
* J. Baptiste de Fréval