4 STBOXG DRINK AND TOBACCO SMOKE. 



eartli. Tlioiigli by no means difficult to observe in what 

 part of the seeds this vital activity commences, or to 

 demonstrate, with the assistance of the microscope, that 

 the seeds of barley, like the plants which they produce, 

 are nothing more than a collection of minute cells, we 

 are nevertheless, after doing so, but a little nearer to 

 the solution of those mighty mysteries w^hich are in- 

 cluded in the word. Life, although we have arrived 

 at a comprehension of some of those agencies which 

 produce its earliest manifestation. 



This, though matter too deep for our philosophy, need 

 not deter us from seeking the knowledge of other facts 

 connected with the life of our barley plant, nor of 

 studying some of the most beautiful provisions which 

 Nature has made for the conservation and reproduction 

 of a plant, that may be said to have become one of the 

 staple necessities of society at the present time. 



A special interest attaches, too, to the hop plant, as 

 the source from which are derived the bitter and 

 aromatic qualities for which English beers are prized, as 

 the finest in the world. The dried fruit of this plant 

 yielded, until recently, an enormous revenue to Govern- 

 ment. It is, however, peculiarly liable to the attacks 

 of the "fly," or "blight," and, on this account, it 

 became so difficult to collect the hop duty, that it has 

 been abandoned by the Government. 



Yeast, with which both our bread and our beers are 

 fermented, takes its place in the vegetable kingdom as 

 a plant very low in its organization, but nevertheless 



