HARMONIES OF VEGETATION. 275 



29. Another point productive of some very pleasing 

 deductions, is founded on the harmonies from contrast. 

 Plants opposite in nature, are almost always associated. 



Thus round the faded trunks of trees, twines the creeping ivy, or 

 the great convolvulus, compensating the apparent want of blossom. 

 The fir rises in the forests of the north, like a lofty pyramid of a dark 

 green colour, and with motionless attitude. Near this tree, you 

 almost always find the birch, which grows to the same height in the 

 form of an inverted pyramid, of a lively green, and whose moveable 

 foliage is incessantly playing with every breath of wind. The reed, 

 on the banks of rivers, raises erect into the air its radiated leaves 

 and its embrowned stem, while the nymphaea spreads at its feet its 

 broad heart-shaped leaves, and its gold-coloured flower; the dark 

 blue violet is contrasted in the spring with the yellow tints of the 

 cowslip and the primrose. On the herbaged angles of the rock, in 

 the shade of ancient beech trees, the fungus, white and round, rises 

 from amidst beds of moss of the most beautiful green. 



30. We have now given a general outline of the har- 

 monies of plants; whereby we learn, in addition to the 

 relations of the root, stem, and leaves, the careful 

 protection of the infant flower by its calyx, the use of 

 the corolla in moderating the effects of heat, the relative 

 agreements of the stamens and pistils, the adaptations of 

 the seed-vessel to the necessities of the seeds, the means 

 adopted by nature to extend vegetation, and finally, 

 the harmonies of colour, &c. 



ANIMAL HARMONIES OF PLANTS. 

 1. After the same goodness in which Nature has 

 made relative agreements between the structure of 

 plants with vegetable life, the harmonies of one organ 



