BOTANY. 229 



shrubs stand not in need of such firmness of texture, their pliability 

 and elastic toughness, together with the prickly coat of mail by 

 which they are enveloped, render them less susceptible of injury in 

 their exposed situation. 



Softness, united with a still greater degree of flexibility, are 

 the distinguishing characteristics of the herbaceous order ; and how 

 wisely has this been ordered for the various purposes ibr which 

 they were created ! With the firmness of trees, to what a prickly 

 stubble must nature's soft and downy carpet have given way ! 

 With the tenacity of shrubs, how would it have answered as food 

 for our cattle ? 



There are, besides, a number of other properties and peculiari- 

 ties in the vegetable kingdom, in which the wonderful working of 

 the Divinity shines pre-eminent. How strange, for instance, that 

 if a seed is sown in a reversed position, the young root turns of it- 

 seif downwards, while the stem refuses to sink deeper in the soil, 

 and bends itself round to shoot up through the surface of the earth ! 

 How surprising, that when the roots of a tree or a plant meet with 

 a stone or other interruption in their progress under ground, they 

 change their direction, and avoid it! How amazing, that the nu- 

 merous shoots which branch out from the root in quest of mois- 

 ture, pursue, as it were by instinct, the track that leads to it turn 

 from a barren to a more fertile soil ; and that plants shut up in a 

 darksome room, bend or creep to any aperture through which the 

 rays of light may be admitted ! 



in these respects, the vegetable tribes may be said to possess 

 something analogous to animal life; but here the resemblance does 

 not stop. How surprising the phenomenon of what is called the 

 sleep of plants, and the sexual system of Linna3tis, founded on the 

 discovery that there exists in the vegetable, as well as in the ani- 

 mal kingdom, a distinction of sexes. 



What amazing variety of size, of shape, and of hue, do we dis- 

 cover among this multitudinous order of things ! What different 

 properties do some possess from others ; and what a near approach 

 do a few make to that superior order immediately above them, in 

 the scale of existence J The sensitive plant, when slightly touched, 

 evinces something like the timidity of our harmless animals; the 

 hedysarum gyrans, or moving plant of the East, exhibits an inces- 

 sant and spontaneous movement of its leaves during the day, in 

 warm and clear weather ; but in the night season, and in the ab- 

 sence of light and heat, its motions cease, and it remains, as it were, 

 in a state of quiescence ! The American Venus' flytrap, like an 

 animal of prey, seems to lie in wait to catch the unwary insect. 



Plants, nevertheless, do not appear to have the smallest basis for 

 sensation, admitting that sensation is the result of a nervous sys- 

 tem ; and we are not acquainted with any other source from which 

 it can proceed. Yet,. although the vessels of plants do not appear 

 to possess any muscular fibres, we have evident proofs of the exist- 

 ence of a contractile and irritable power from some other princi- 

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