XVI INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 



memory. There is, moreover, something peculiarly attractive in the collecting 

 of alpine plants. Their comparative rarity, the localities in which they grow, 

 and frequently their beautiful hues, conspire in shedding around them a halo of 

 interest far exceeding that connected with lowland productions. The alpine 

 Veronica displaying its lovely blue corolla on the verge of dissolving snows ; the 

 Forget-me-not of the mountain summit, whose tints far excel those of its name- 

 sake of the brooks; the Woodsia, with its tufted fronds, adorning the clefts of 

 the rocks ; the snowy Gentian concealing its eye of blue in the ledges of the steep 

 crags; the alpine Astragalus enlivening the turf with its purple clusters; the 

 Lychnis choosing the stony and dry knoll for the evolution of its pink petals ; the 

 Sonchus raising its stately stalk and azure heads in spots which try the enthu- 

 siasm of the adventurous collector; the pale-flowered Oxytropis confining itself 

 to a single British cliff; the Azalea forming a carpet of the richest crimson ; the 

 Saxifrages, with their white, yellow, and pink blossoms, clothing the sides of 

 the streams ; the Saussurea and Erigeron crowning the rocks with their purple 

 and pink capitula; the pendent Cinquefoil blending its yellow flowers with the 

 white of the alpine Cerastiums and the bright blue of the stony Veronica ; the 

 stemless Silene giving a pink and velvety covering to the decomposing granite ; 

 the yellow Hieracia, whose varied transition forms have been such a fertile cause 

 of dispute among botanists ; the slender and delicate grasses, the duckweeds, the 

 carices, and the rushes, which spring up on the moist alpine summits; the grace- 

 ful ferns, the tiny mosses, with their urn-like theca?, the crustaceous dry lichens, 

 with their spore-bearing apothecia ; all these add such a charm to highland 

 botany, as to throw a comparative shade over the vegetation of the plains. 



Many are the important lessons which may be drawn from the study of plants, 

 when prosecuted in the true spirit of Wisdom. The volume of Creation is then 

 made the handmaid of the volume of Inspiration, and the more that each is 

 studied, the more shall we find occasion to observe the harmony that subsists 

 between them. It is only Science, falsely so called, which is in any way opposed 

 to Scripture. Never, in a single instance, remarks Gaussen, do we find the 

 Bible in opposition to the just ideas which Science has given us regarding the 

 form of our globe, its magnitude, its geology, and the productions which cover 

 the surface. "The invisible things of God from the creation of the world are 

 clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal 

 power and Godhead." The more minutely we examine the phenomena of the 

 material world, and the more fully we compare the facts of Science with Revealed 

 Truth, the more reason shall we have to exclaim, in adoring wonder, with the 

 Psalmist of old, " Lord! how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou 

 made them all ; the earth is full of thy riches." 



