160 LEAVES FROM THE BOOK OF NATURE. 



scattered over fertile fields and covered all vegetation, 

 changing the bright prairie into a scene of utter desola- 

 tion. Ten short years later the great captain was again 

 on the same spot. But what a change! The bare wild 

 masses were covered with a young luxuriant grove of 

 locusts, and a thousand cattle were grazing on the hills. 



Thus we are taught how nature proceeds, in our day, 

 from the green matter gathering on our ponds to the 

 giant tree of the forest. But if we turn to the individual 

 plant how little do we as yet know of its simple struc- 

 ture ! Who can solve the mystery that pervades its silent 

 yet ever-active life ? There is something in the very still- 

 ness of that unknown power which awes and subdues us. 

 Man may forcibly obstruct the path of a growing twig, 

 but it turns quietly aside and moves patiently, irresistibly 

 on, in its appointed way. Wood and iron even powerful 

 steam they all obey him and become the humble slaves 

 of his intellect. But the life of the lowest of plants defies 

 him. He may extinguish it to be sure ; but to make 

 use of a living plant, he must obey it, study its wants 

 and tendencies, and mould, in fact, his own proud will 

 to the humblest grass that grows at his feet. Thus we 

 have learned the biography of plants, few events of which 

 are without interest even to the general observer. 



On old walls and damp palings, or in glasses in which 

 we have left soft water standing for several days in sum- 

 mer, we find often a delicate, bright green and almost 

 velvety coat this is the first beginning of all vegetation. 

 What we see is a number of small round cells, and one 

 of these delicate cells, a little globe as large as the 



