Wonderful Plants.
"Give me to drain the cocoa's milky bowl,
And from the palm to draw its freshening wine."
The wonderful plants portrayed by our artist are scarcely more wonderful than some of the vegetable productions of this bounteous earth. The little boy may well be astonished to see such a wonderful crop of good things; but if he will only stop and think a little he will find that plum-puddings, mince-pies, and wearing apparel do really grow, or, more strictly speaking, they spring from the wonderful plants which actually exist. Consider the composition of that famous pudding which crowns the fanciful group on the preceding page. The currants and raisins, the sugar, almonds, and candied lemon-peel which are its principal ingredients, are all vegetable productions; and the suet and eggs may be described as animalized grass and barley, for they are formed out of the vegetable food of the ox and the hen. The plum-pudding tree is not half so preposterous a conception as it appears to be at the first glance.
