IVILD, OR XATIVE FLOWERS. e^x 



Our charming Twin-flower is very constant in its habits, being 

 found year after year in the same locality, as long as it enjoys the 

 advantages of shade and moisture ; but it cannot endure exposure to the 

 heat and glare of sunshine, though it will linger as long as it can obtain 

 any shelter. 



Thirty years ago I found the Liimcea borealis growing beneath the 

 shade of Hemlock trees among long Sphagnous mosses, on the rocky 

 banks of the Otonabee. Last year, on re-visiting the same spot, I 

 noticed a few dwarfed, yellow and starved-looking plants struggling, as 

 it were, for existence, but the evergreens that had sheltered them at their 

 roots were all gone. 



There seems to be a law of mutual dependence among the 

 vegetable tribes, each one ministering to the wants of the others. 

 Thus the shelter afforded by the larger trees to the smaller shrubs and 

 herbs, is repaid again to them by the nourishment that the decaying 

 leaves and stems of these latter afford, and the warmth that they yield 

 to their roots by covering the ground from the winter cold, and thus pro- 

 tecting them from injury. Further than this, it is very probable that they 

 appropriate to their own use qualities, in the soil or in the air, that might 

 prove injurious to the healthy growth of the larger vegetables. That which 

 is taken up by one race of plants is often rejected by others. Yet so- 

 beautiful is the arrangement of God's economy in the vegetable world 

 that something gathers up all fragments and nothing is lost — nay, not the 

 minutest particle runs to waste. The farmer practically acknowledges 

 the principle that one kind of vegetable feeds upon that w^hich another 

 rejects, when he adopts a certain routine in cropping his land, for he 

 knows that if he planted grain in constant succession the soil would soon 

 cease to yield its increase, because it would have ceased to afford the 

 food necessary for perfecting the grain : but he sows Wheat after roots» 

 as Potatoes, Turnips and Beets, or after pulse as Pease, Beans or Vetches, 

 for these have taken only certain constituents of the soil, leaving those 

 portions on which the Cereals feed unappropriated. Thus silently, 

 unconsciously, and mysteriously, do God's creatures administer to one 

 another, working out the will of their Great Creator, and obeying his 

 laws while following the instincts of their several natures. 



We might follow out this subject to a greater length than our limits 

 will admit of our doing, but it is time that we dismiss our lovely little 

 Twin-flower which forms so attractive a feature in our artist's graceful 

 design, hoping that it may sometimes win an admiring glance from our 

 readers, who may be so fortunate as to meet with its evergreen wreaths 

 and fragrant flowers, in its native woods during the leafy month of 



