ORCHIS. 223 



and air was admitted into the wood. There must 

 have been a first cause for the origin of all plants, 

 and that this cause should be renewed or repeated a 

 agreeably to necessary circumstances, cannot be 

 disputed by those who reflect on the subject. It 

 was evidently the opinion of the inspired Israelite, 

 when he wrote in the book of Genesis, " the earth 

 brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after 

 his kind, whose seed was in itself. 11 And were it 

 possible that every plant and every seed on the 

 earth should perish, it cannot be doubted but that 

 the same kind of vegetation would eventually 

 spring up as is now peculiar to each particular soil 

 and climate of the world. It may be asked, would 

 our majestic oaks, and the imperial cedars of Le- 

 banon, with the towering palms of India, again 

 return to fill the space in their natural situations ? 

 Minute as the loftiest trees are, in comparison with 

 the boundlessness of space, they are, conjointly with 

 the humblest herb, necessary links in the harmony 

 of this terrestrial globe. Their existence is as neces- 

 sary to form the vital air which surrounds the earth, 

 as their substance is to the animals which inhabit it. 

 A singular instance of vegetation occurred in Lon- 

 don after the great fire of 1666, which reduced the 

 centre of that city to a heap of cinders, and roasted 

 the very earth ; yet on the following year the whole 

 mass of the ruins was so entirely covered with the 



