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zon of perception is circumscribed by a line at no 

 remote distance. Some perfected results, some in- 

 itial principles, many rudiments, have been obtain- 

 ed ; beyond them, expands the boundless extent of 

 science through the infinite of material and spiritual 

 existence. 



The most flimiliar operations of vegetation yet 

 remain unexplained mysteries. In the flower pots, 

 next to the wife and children, the best ornaments of 

 the parlor, there is an intricate radiation of fibres : 

 above them rises the plant, with a complex organi- 

 zation of veins and arteries circulating the vital fluid 

 to the remotest extremities. A delicate apparatus 

 of valves and cisterns, with invisible chemistry, de- 

 composes the atmosphere and supplies respiration. 

 Who can tell us the process draining invigorating 

 streams from the elements and pouring nourishment 

 through thread-like conduits ? What mechanism 

 converts lifeless dust into living forms more graceful 

 and tints more glowing than human genius ever 

 struck from the marble or spread on the canvass ? 



The effects of soil, exposure, and temperature, 

 upon the qualities of plants yet remain undefined. 

 While the orange withers beneath the touch of frost, 

 the moss which relieves the rein-deer's hunger flour- 

 ishes beneath the ice, and the pines raise their green 

 heads above the snows in perennial verdure. The 

 Mezereon spreads its purple cups to the earliest 

 breath of spring, while the Witch Hazel, when all the 

 companions of its summer hours have faded, fringes 

 with a yellow drapery the desolated fields of the 

 waning year. Some species of plants seem frozen 

 into animation, while others can only exist in the 



