154 LEAVES FROM THE BOOK OF NATURE. 



v. 



fouuger ffears of a f lant. 



"Herbs too she knew, and well of each could speak, 

 That in her garden sipped the silv'ry dew." 



SHENSTONJB'S " School- Mistress." 



TT7"E all know thanks to the word of inspiration in our 

 hands how plants were first made. On the third 

 day, when God made heaven and earth, He said : Let the 

 earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed and the 

 fruit-tree after his kind ! and the earth did bring forth 

 grass and herbs, the tree yielding fruit, and God saw that 

 it was good. 



Thus plants and flowers were the earth's first-born pro- 

 geny; they sprang out of her bosom and crowned her 

 with verdure and beauty. The plains covered themselves 

 with waving grasses, and the mountains with majestic for- 

 ests ; the silvery willow and the lofty poplar bent over the 

 banks of rivers, and repeated in their trembling, murmur- 

 ing leaves, the gentle ripple and the low purling of the 

 stream. The ocean, also, had its woods and its prairies 



