CHAPTEE XIV. 



THE FRUIT GIFT. 



1. IN the course of the preceding chapter, I hope that 

 the reader has obtained, or may by a little patience both 

 obtain and secure, the idea of a great natural Ordinance, 

 which, in the protection given to the part of plants 

 necessary to prolong their race, provides, for happier 

 living creatures, food delightful to their taste, and forms 

 either amusing or beautiful to their eyes. Whether in 

 receptacle, calyx, or true husk, in the cup of the acorn, 

 the fringe of the filbert, the down of the apricot, or 

 bloom of the plum, the powers of Nature consult quite 

 other ends than the mere continuance of oaks and plum 

 trees on the earth ; and must be regarded always with 

 gratitude more deep than wonder, when they are indeed 

 seen with human eyes and human intellect. 



2. But in one family of plants, the contents also of 

 the seed, not the envelope of it merely, are prepared 

 for the support of the higher animal life ; and their 

 grain, filled with the substance which, for universally 

 understood name, may best keep the Latin one of Farina, 

 becoming in French, c Farine,' and in English, ' Flour,' 

 both in the perfectly nourishing elements of it, and its 



