38 THE HEDGE-BANK. 



opened by the heat, suddenly curl themselves into 

 a spiral form, and scatter their seeds to a consider- 

 able distance. But for such a contrivance as this, 

 we should rarely be able to find a young furze 

 plant, until the old ones had either decayed or 

 been cut down ; for the bushes grow so closely to- 

 gether, and at so short a distance from the ground, 

 that if the seeds fell perpendicularly, many of them 

 would rest in the thick bush, and those that did 

 reach the ground would be entirely deprived of 

 light, while the branches of the old plants would 

 be so thickly matted over them, that, if they took 

 root at all, they would be choked, and would 

 never come to perfection. The providence of God 

 has so ordered, that scarcely any seedling tree will 

 grow under the shade of a larger one of the same 

 kind. It may send up a few leaves, but if not 

 transplanted, rarely thrives ; for, after lingering in 

 a very unhealthy condition for a year or two at 

 the most, it dwindles away and dies. 



" Whence then," you will ask, " proceed our 

 forests of oak, and beach, and sycamore, and many 

 more trees ? How comes it that the hills are con- 

 cealed from our sight by the variegated tapestry 

 of nature, our rivers fringed with the foliage of 

 numberless stately trees ?" He who in the begin- 

 ning bade the earth bring forth trees yielding 

 fruit after their kind, by his single word allotted 

 them their place in the universe, framed the laws 

 which are to direct and govern their growth, and so 

 harmoniously arranged the whole system of which 

 they are a minute portion, that every apparent 

 defect is remedied before it is felt ; and not one of 

 the myriads of operations which are constantly 

 going on in nature is at any time imperfect. 



