THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 447 



And yet these creatures, the locomotive organs of which 

 we can see so plainly, and which the microscopist beholds 

 capering as nimbly as our mountebanks in their dangerous 

 leaps, are obstinately considered by certain botanists, for 

 the sake of mere theory, as being insensible and incapable 

 of moving. Do some learned men possess eyes only in or- 

 der not to see with them ? 



CHAPTER X. 



PHYSIOLOGY OF FLOWERS. 



In the flower, this glorious and supreme effort of vegeta- 

 ble life, the poetic imagination of Linnaeus beheld only the 

 picture of a chaste marriage. The calyx, which grasps the 

 corolla in its rustic arms, was to him only the nuptial couch, 

 of which the delicate and undulating petals formed the 

 mysterious curtains. Lastly, in the centre sat the modest 

 spouses, intoxicating themselves with love, enveloped in a 

 cloud of perfume, and their feet bathed in nectar. 



But all plants do not display to us in this way the calm 

 magnificence of their nuptials. The secrets of these are 

 quite hidden in many of them, which the greatest and most 

 ingenious of botanists named, for this reason, Cryptogamia, 

 signifying secret marriage. 



Among plants which are ornamented with visible flowers, 

 these exhibit an endless variety of size, form, coloring, and 

 perfume. 



While some, such as the valerians, bear such tiny corol- 



