140 LEAVES FROM THE BOOK OF NATURE. 



which child was ever rocked, must needs float its rosy 

 leaves on the warm bosom of the silent lakes of Guiana, 

 and the aristolochia of South America, whose flowers are 

 large enough to serve Indian boys as hats or helmets, 

 deigns not to live, unless it can bathe its delicate roots 

 in the shady waters of the Magdalen river. Theirs is the 

 warm golden light of the sun, theirs the richest of soils, 

 the purest of waters, an everlasting summer, an unbroken 

 enjoyment. And yet, are they really more beauteous and 

 graceful than the humble house-leek, which flourishes under 

 circumstances that would be fatal to almost all other 

 plants] In the very driest places, where not a blade of 

 grass, not a spire of moss can grow, on naked rocks, old 

 crumbling walls, or sandy, parched plains, these step- 

 children of nature are seen to thrive and to prosper. 

 Alternately exposed to the heaviest dews at night, and the 

 fiercest rays of the noonday sun, they withstand all, and 

 live upon so small a particle of soil, that it seems to 

 them more a means of keeping them stationary, than a 

 source of nutriment. Rock-roses bear that name, because 

 they will only flourish in dry, rocky places, where other 

 plants would never find a due supply of moisture. These 

 rocks they are industriously engaged in ornamenting with 

 a profusion of brilliantly colored flowers, for nature loves 

 to combine every where the beautiful with the useful. 

 Still, their beauty is but short-lived ; their blossoms usually 

 expand at night, and after a few hours' exposure to the 

 sun, they perish. But their long evergreen branches trail, 

 year after year, with great beauty, over the rough banks 

 and rocky cliffs that give them a shelter and a home. 



