328 SKETCHES OF CREATION. 



sions of ideas ? In their structural rank, in their embry 

 onic development, in their geological sequence, and even, in 

 one case, in their relative position in depth, the groups of 

 the animal kingdom give utterance to the same intelligible 

 sentences. This is not the utterance of chance ; it is the 

 language of One Intelligence presiding over the evolutions 

 of the organic world through all ages and in all the condi 

 tions of its existence. 



Other world-harmonies crowd upon our attention. Iden 

 tical thoughts are written upon the flowers and the stars. 



Every one has observed that the leaves of some plants 

 stand in pairs opposite each other, on opposite sides of the 

 stem. In other plants the leaves are scattered over the 

 stem. In this case they are not promiscuously placed, for, 

 on careful observation, we find them disposed in the most 

 regular manner. Commencing with any given leaf, for in 

 stance, w^e shall find the next leaf above this one third of 

 the distance around the stem ; the next, another third ; and 

 the next another third, so as to stand exactly over the first. 

 The series is, therefore, arranged in a spiral, which may be 

 designated by the fraction ^. Taking another plant, we 

 shall find the next leaf above any given one two fifths of 

 the distance around the stem ; the next will be four fifths ; 

 the next, six fifths, and so on, each leaf moving two fifths 

 of the circumference farther around the stem. In this case 

 the fifth leaf stands over the first, and this superposition is 

 attained after winding twice around the stem. Here we 

 bave an order of arrangement, or a spiral, which may be 

 represented by the fraction f. In precisely the same way 

 we discover in other plants spirals which may be expressed 

 by the fractions f, f^, ^-, etc. If, in the case of opposite 

 leaves, first mentioned, we conceive that two spirals start 

 from the same level on opposite sides of the stem, it is evi 

 dent that each successive leaf in each spiral is separated 



