278 HARMONIES OF VEGETATION. 



listener ; butthere are other vegetable productions, which not being 

 KO numerous, are not 10 essential. 



8. In the dispensation of the auxiliary vegetable 

 blessing, we find they do not all come at the same time 

 of the year. 



Thus in this country, the spring is ushered in with the gooiberry 

 and the currant, to these succeed a regular and constant supply of 

 vegetables and fruit, till the autumn banquet, again reminds us of a 

 declining season. Were the gooseberry, the cherry, the plnm, the 

 peach, the apple and the pear, all to come together, we should be 

 surfeited with the profusion ; but nature is a better economist ; she 

 has given them a period for their perfection, and that period calcu- 

 lated to our wants and appetites at the individual season of their 

 maturity. 



9. In addition to the agreement of vegetables and 

 fruit, to the time we most stand in need of them as 

 luxuries or comforts, we also find they are adapted to 

 the necessities of the climate in which they grow. 



In the torrid zones, we accordingly hear of the most delicious 

 fruits, while in the colder climates, there is only a corresponding 

 character of their frnits and vegetable productions. 



10. The next point in which we find vegetation so 

 truly harmonizes with the necessities of man, is derived 

 from the general configuration of plants ; so that some 

 are adapted to one purpose and others to another. 



In addition to the variety and beauty of plants to decorate the face 

 of the earth, there are some which serve only for ornament; others 

 which combine utility with elegance ; while a third set appear to be 

 distinctly calculated to protect man's property, and to secure his 

 habitation. Of the first kind are many flowers of our gardens ; of the 

 second, the mulberry and the almond tree ; and of the last, the haw- 

 thorn, the oak, and the fir tree. 



