CH. v.] THE SAP. 171 



A cloud of other testimonies might be produced, 

 shewing the alteration of vegetable form to accommo- 

 date the individual to altered circumstances. Place 

 some aquatic plants in a running stream, the water 

 cress, for instance, and its submerged leaves will be 

 very small, thus giving the stream less power to 

 force them from their rooted hold ; but plant them 

 in still water, and the leaves are uniform in size. 

 Momitain plants have, for a similar reason, the 

 smallest foliage near then- summits, thus giving less 

 hold to the boisterous ^inds which sweep over them. 

 Nor is this contrary to reason, as some persons 

 would have us believe ; for the petals, and even the 

 minuter parts of eveiy flower, are only different 

 forms of the same alburnum, parenchyma, and bark, 

 which takes another shape in the leaf. And it 

 is only one other instance of that power of adapta- 

 tion to circumstances so wisely given by God to all 

 organized beings, which makes the wool of the 

 sheep become scanty hair m tropical tempera- 

 tures, and the brown fur of our hare become white 

 amid the snows of the arctic regions. In the 

 case of plants, it is familiar to eveiy gardener ; and 

 he knows, that by differing modes of treatment, he 

 can make, according to his pleasure, his plants pro- 

 duce an exuberance of leaves or of flowers, and a 

 well-known instance is the Solandra grancUflora. 

 This native of Jamaica had for many years been 

 cultivated in our hot-houses, had been propagated 



