VEGETABLE LIVE. 15 



the earth bring forth grass" In other words, God in creating 

 the earth, had placed within the atoms of which it is composed, 

 that principle of life giving force, which is part of His universal 

 law ; and by which the earth, spontaneously, brings forth the 

 " grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit trees yielding fruit 

 after his kind." 



Surely He who gave the atoms their atomagnetic power and 

 properties, is able to give them any other. 



Again, plants die out, and seeds do not always grow to plants, 



For instance, a forest of hardwood is burned down; and, 

 although the roots may be uninjured, the hardwood trees do not 

 renew themselves, but a forest of softwood grows up in their 

 place. What is the cause of this ] The nature of the soil has 

 been changed by the fire, and the new soil, as a natural 

 consequence, not being adapted for the hardwood, developes a 

 plant bearing seed suitable to itself. 



Thus is Darwin's theory of the "Origin of Species" over- 

 thrown in a moment. He asserts all plants are descended 

 from four or five progenitors, "or probably only one." But if 

 a plant will grow only in a soil, and in a climate suitable to it, 

 there must have been some thousands of species at first. For 

 Darwin surely does not mean us to believe, there was only one 

 kind of soil, and one climatic condition in the beginning. 



We do not, however, believe with his opponents that no new 

 species have sprung up, for with every change of soil there 

 must necessarily be a change of plant growth. Every day, 

 therefore, old plants are dying out and new ones are being 

 created. Experienced gardeners, while they can produce a new 

 variety of almost any plant or fruit grown, might, doubtless, if 



