166 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



world as well known to him, as the gaj and 

 conspicuous ornaments of the flower-border and 

 the conservatory. So little room, indeed, is 

 there for discovery, that, in despair of immor- 

 talizing themselves by the useful or the elegant 

 in the objects of their search, even the most 

 respectable modern writers on botany have not 

 disdained to assign a barbarous Latin version of 

 their names, to the most simple and insignificant 

 moss. 



Amidst this want of novelty in the advanced 

 study of plants, and the paucity of philosophi- 

 cal induction which it affords, there is still one 

 inducement to its continuance in the perpetual 

 vicissitudes of the vegetable kingdom, by which 

 it almost atones for the absence of fresh discove- 

 ries. Plants bud, blossom, and decay with 

 such pleasing gradations of order and beauty, 

 that they present a separate charm and lesson 

 in each stage of their existence. And, unlike 

 all other Hving things, which but once exhibit 

 the phenomena of dissolution, these annually 

 retire into a mysterious and incomprehensible 

 torpidity that they may renew, continually, the 

 pleasure and instruction they have already af- 

 forded. 



It is this peculiarity that renders the study of 



