THE WHITE BAY. 131 



correspondence between this law of position of the leaves and 

 other parts of plants on the stem, and the law of the motion of 

 the planets about the sun, so that if the time of the revolution of 

 any planet be divided by the time of the planet next outside it, 

 the quotient would be one of the fractions which express the 

 position of the leaves, nearly, as given above. 



If we inquire the reason for such an arrangement of the leaves 

 as here set forth, we are told that we shall find at least one reason 

 in the fact that by placing the leaves in these positions they are 

 thus best arranged to receive light, the force by which they per- 

 form their double function of lungs and stomach; that when so 

 placed the leaves above cut off less of the light from those below 

 than by any other arrangement. There is also another reason 

 suggested in the fact that this arrangement gives symmetry and 

 beauty to the plants not otherwise attainable. But I suppose we 

 may look for other reasons and more profound, for building 

 plants and planets on this one plan, in the mind of Him who 

 is the Architect of both. 



This law of the position of the leaves of plants was first 

 noticed about a century ago by Bonnet, a French botanist, who 

 wound a thread about a twig of plum or peach, touching the 

 points of attachment of the successive leaves. He observed the 

 resulting spiral, and the fact that the successive leaves made a 

 uniform angle with each other about the stem. Other botanists 

 made the observation with respect to a large number of plants 

 and noted the various applications of the law in the different 

 species and the different parts of the plant, as in the leaf-buds, 

 flower-buds, petals, sepals, seeds, etc. But it was left to our great 

 mathematician Prof. Peirce, in 1849, * announce the mathemati- 



