A CHAT ABOUT PLANTS. 139 



thercd under a thousand coarser plants ; rank grass and 

 fat clover overspread the exotics ; briers climb up with 

 the aid of hooks and ladders, as if they were storming 

 a fortress; nettles fill the urns of statues with their thick 

 tufts, and unsightly mosses creep upon the very faces of 

 marble beauties. Wild cherry-trees and maples seize on 

 every cornice and cleft of the stately mansion ; hardy in- 

 vincible roots penetrate into the slightest opening, until 

 at last victory is declared, and the trees of the fbrest wave 

 their rich foliage over the high turrets, and raise trium- 

 phantly on spire and pinnacle, the gorgeous banner of 

 Nature. 



Thus we gain the impression, so encouraging and pleas- 

 ing to reflecting man, that all nature is everywhere full 

 of life a life, moreover, varied by a thousand shades and 

 as yet but little known. For there is high life and low 

 life among plants as among men. The stately palm raises 

 its high, unbroken pillar, crowned with sculptured verdure, 

 only in the hot vapors of Brazilian forests and tropical 

 climes, and like a true " king of the grasses," as the ancient 

 Indians called the noble tree, it must fare sumptuously 

 and upon the richest of earth's gifts, before it justifies the 

 prophet's saying, that " the righteous shall flourish like the 

 palm-tree." How humble, by its side, the lowly moss, 

 barely visible to the naked eye, clad in most modest garb, 

 and yet faithfully covering, with its warm mantle, the 

 dreary, weather-beaten boulders of northern granite, or car- 

 peting our damp grottoes, and making them resplendent 

 with its phosphorescent verdure ! The brilliant flower of 

 Queen Victoria's namesake, the most superb cradle in 



