168 ORGANIC METAMORPHOSIS OF LEAVES. 



appointed time. Surely this flower, so humble, unattrac- 

 tive, and short-lived, like the leaf-scales of a tree, has its 

 place assigned in the organism of the universe, which 

 would probably be no unimportant one, if the wondrous 

 mechanism of life were only better understood. And it is 

 the same with the every individual of all that troop of 

 bright and smiling ones with which the earth is annually 

 garlanded, especially when, like my welcome little friend, 

 Draba verna, they decorate the earth in countless numbers. 

 Eegarded as a part of the organism of living Nature, such 

 plants lose their insignificance; and there is no genus, 

 however brief its life-span and unattractive its appearance, 

 which is beneath the consideration of Naturalists. 



Nor is the above lesson without its moral. What shall 

 be said of those who despise the honest and industrious 

 man, because he occupies an inferior position in society ? 

 Such conduct is certainly not sanctioned by Nature, or her 

 teachings, when we see what is lowly and apparently insig- 

 nificant at the foundation of her grandest operations. 



