30 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN. 
the exquisite skill of the Architect sparkle in every shrub 
that grows, and every flower that blooms. 
Since the invention of the microscope, which only 
reaches back a little more than a century, there has been a 
marvelous advance in botanical investigations ; developing 
wonders of which the older students never dreamed. In 
the structure of the plant; in its physiological organiza- 
tion; tracing the nature, position and adaptation of its 
several members, and the purposes they subserve ; as these 
have been studied, ascertained and settled, there have been 
revelations of creative skill, and such evidences of beneficent 
arrangement, that no devout student can withhold the 
grateful confession —‘* How manifold are Thy works, in 
wisdom hast Thou made them all.’’ As without the aid 
of the telescope, the wonders of the heavenly bodies were 
but imperfectly revealed, and their intricate, unceasing, 
and never varying movements but partially apprehended : 
so, in the case of each individual plant, the naked eye 
could but imperfectly discern its several members; separate 
their constituent parts; follow their intricate connections, 
and diagnose the purposes they were designed to subserve : 
so it was not until the magnifying power of the microscope 
was brought to bear upon it, that many an organ was dis- 
covered and analyzed whose functions are all important to 
its life, and whose adaptation and workings, depend- 
ing upon minute inspection, were hidden entirely from 
view. 
There is one indisputable fact which stands out in bold 
relief as the outcome of the investigations of botanists of 
a comparatively late date; and that is the almost imper- 
ceptible boundary between the vegetable and animal 
kingdom. There is an analogy which admits of no con- 
tradiction, between the several members of different 
families in each kingdom ; as to their comparative structure ; 
the law of their physiology and the adaptation and offices 
of their respective organs. Asan illustrution of this truth, 
I desire to quote from an introductory address, of the late 
