HARMONIES OF VEGETATION. 265 



quantity of fibres, as to form around it a solid mass. It is on this 

 basis, that it withstands the most furious tempests in the midst of a 

 moving soil. There are other vegetables of the shores whose roots 

 resemble cords, such as the alder, the reed, &c. Bulbous plants 

 appear, in like manner, to delight in soft mud, into which they can- 

 not su.k far from the rotundity of their roots. 



HARMONIES OF THE STEM. 



3. With the stem, the chief relation must be to the 

 situation of the vegetable. 



The most probable intention of the stem, as necessary to the 

 plant, is to raise the herbage to a proper situation where it may 

 effectually perform the relation it has to the earth, air, sun, water, 

 and so on. 



HARMONIES OF THE LEAVES. 



4. The leaves by their construction are calculated 

 to change the snp of the vegetable into proper juice, and 

 to hold a scale of harmony -with the air, by their upper 

 surface, and with moisture by their under surface. 



The relation of the leaves to water, has different bearings. In 

 the first place, we must confess them to absorb moisture by their 

 under surface ; in the second place, in dry situations they are so 



or vegetables growing near water, they are disposed, for the contrary 

 purpose of conveying it from the root. 



gJARMONIES OF THE FLOWER. 



6. Whatever may be the form, structure or habits of 

 plants, they have all one great object to perform in order 

 to continue the species from one generation to another. 



