EUCALYPTUS TREES. 589 
In the oldest hieroglyphics, in the sarcophagi of 
the mummies, in the Huenen burials, and, indeed, 
‘in all relics of the remotest antiquity, the historian 
has to trace plants, and is often led on by them in his 
archeeologic researches. The physician must draw 
them hourly into use; the artisan, whatever may be 
his occupation, has daily to depend on them or their 
products ; all our aliments are derived, either directly 
or indirectly, from vegetation ; the very existence of 
the whole animal creation, indeed of man himself, is 
dependent on plants. There can be no wiser meas- 
ure for general education than to afford the easiest 
opportunity of gaining, at least to some extent, a sci- 
entific appreciation of these faithful and cheering 
companions of ours through life. Mark, when reflect- 
ing, how intimately the knowledge of the living plants 
is connected with the product which they yield so be- 
neficently for our wants. The artisan who constructs 
the building should be able to recognize in our parks 
the Spruce Fir, which furnishes him the deal for floor- 
ing; he would no less be interested in viewing — 
though here, perhaps, under glass — the Mahogany- 
tree, whose wood passed for years through his hands. 
The chair on which we rest, the flooring - deals over 
which we daily step, the pencils with which we write, 
the frames which inclose the pictures on our domestic 
walls —all these, and thousands of other things sur- 
rounding us, are yielded by the vegetable world, and 
can become the objects of intelligent reflection and 
industrial teaching. The bloomy imitation of tapes- 
try, or the flowery embellishments of decorated walls 
or architectural elegance —do they not call, hourly, 
plants to our mind ? In the painters’ landscapes, in 
