60 



CLARKIA -CLASSIFICATION. 



authenticated instance of its having ventured within 

 reach of the jaws of the crocodile. The ichneumon 

 is not so indolent during the day as the other sub- 

 genera, and therefore it has more attraction as a 

 domestic quadruped. It is easily tamed, remains 

 willingly in a state of domestication, and not only 

 obeys the call, but readily follows the footsteps of 

 those who are kind to it. 



It is rather a small animal, about fifteen inches in 

 length and eight in height. Its colour is deep brown, 

 so mottled with dull white, and sometimes with grey, 

 that it is not easily described. There are five toes on 

 each foot, the thumb is very short and apparently 

 useless. All these toes are armed with strong and 

 crooked claws. The sole is naked and covered with 

 a very fine delicate skin. The eye has a long trans- 

 versal pupil, but no other particular character. The 

 nose passes the lower jaw, but is not moveable. 



When the overflowing of the Nile drives the wild 

 ichneumons from the banks, they sometimes resort to 

 the towns and villages, to levy contributions on the 

 poultry yards and pigeon houses (pigeons are exceed- 

 ingly abundant all along the banks of the Nile), or to 

 join in the labours of scavengership with the foxes and 

 hyaenas ; but these animals not only take the lion's 

 share of the offal, but very frequently include the 

 ichneumon .itself in that devoted portion. 



The described members of this sub-genus are still 

 more numerous than those of the former, but they are 

 subject to the same uncertainty. Their haunts and 

 habits are all so nearly alike, that any one of them 

 serves to tell the tale of the others in every respect, 

 save in external appearance and in locality. The places 

 which they frequent, are, in all parts of the world, 

 those in which there are periodical floodings of water ; 

 and the principal office which they appear to perform 

 in the economy of nature, is that of destroying the 

 eggs of aquatic reptiles, which are, in general, so 

 very numerous, that if they were all to be hatched 

 the young could not possibly find food. 



CLARKIA (Pursh). A beautiful little annual, 

 lately introduced into our flower gardens from North 

 America. Linnajan class and order Octandria Mono- 

 gynia ; and natural order Onagrarice. Generic cha- 

 racter : calyx tubular, limb four-cleft, three of them 

 often cohering ; petals inserted in the calyx, claws 

 with one tooth on each side, limb of three lobes ; 

 stamens alternately sterile and fertile, the latter op- 

 posite the gashes of the calyx ; anthers linear, two- 

 celled ; style filiform ; stigma of four lobes, somewhat 

 like petals ; capsule cylindrical, furrowed, and four- 

 celled. This plant was hailed on its first appearance, 

 not only as a stranger, but for the elegant laciniated 

 figure and position of its petals. It readily ripens 

 seed, which only requires to be sowed in the open 

 borders with other hardy annuals in the spring. 

 The original plants had purple flowers ; but we have 

 already a variety with white or very pale purple 

 blossoms. 



CLARY. Is the Salvia sclarca of Linnaeus. This 

 is a biennial, and cultivated for seasoning soups, &c. 

 There are two other species of clary, viz. Horminum, 

 of which there are two varieties, namely the red and 

 purple-topped, and Verbcnaca the vervain-clary. 



CLASSIFICATION. The productions of nature 

 are so numerous, and the progress which the combined 

 and continued efforts which men of all nations and in 

 all ages ha v e made in the knowledge of them, is so 

 small, compared with what we are compelled to be- 



lieve still remains to be known, that the life of man, 

 measured against all that has to be learned in order 

 to obtain even a superficial knowledge of the works of 

 nature, appears more disproportionate than measuring 

 a single moment against a thousand years. 



Knowledge, of whatever kind it is, in order to be 

 true and therefore useful, must begin as we ourselves 

 begin, that is at the point of absolute ignorance ; and 

 therefore, if we go to the details, and attempt to know 

 the single subjects one by one, our lives would be 

 spent before we had mastered all which is to be met 

 with upon a single acre of ground in a state of nature. 

 All appears in a state of confusion to our untutored 

 observation ; and therefore we, in that state, abandon 

 the study as hopeless, and fall back upon our merely 

 animal appetites as our only means of enjoyment. 



This we find to be the state of mankind in all coun- 

 tries where the light of science has never came ; ami 

 yet in the few matters which they do understand, we 

 find that these men of limited information are superior 

 rather than inferior to ourselves. The senses of the 

 savage are always more acute than those of men who 

 are civilised and informed ; but there is no principle 

 of progression in them they do not advance ; and 

 we have no reason to suppose that the inhabitants of 

 any scienceless country were one jot better informed at 

 the time when they were first visited by European 

 adventurers than they had been in the hundredth 

 generation previous to that event. 



Not only this, but it does not appear that there is 

 any general tendency in them to profit by the ex- 

 ample of their more scientific visiters, unless there has 

 been a beginning made before the arrival of them. 

 No doubt there are some rude people, to whom the 

 intercourse of civilised men has given an impulse, and 

 we cannot, perhaps, cite a more striking instance of 

 this, than the case of the New Zealanders ; but they 

 were begun had taken some steps rude no doubt, but 

 still in the way of improvement before they were 

 visited by Europeans. On the other hand, where 

 there has been no beginning, the savage is consumed 

 before the march of civilisation, instead of being 

 aroused and instructed by it. The Indians of North 

 America have faded to a remnant much faster than 

 can be accounted for by any direct oppression with 

 which they have met though that has no doubt been 

 severe enough in many instances. When we turn our 

 attention to other parts of the world, be those parts 

 what they may, we find that there is no exception to 

 this ; but that the longer these rude tribes have 

 been in the neighbourhood of civilised men, the more 

 have they fallen off in character, and declined in 

 numbers. 



There is much information involved in these truths, 

 simple as they are ; for they show that the ignorant 

 cannot arrive at knowledge of any kind by the means 

 and the process by which that knowledge has been 

 originally accumulated ; and also, that the way of 

 obtaining possession of the knowledge which has been 

 already acquired must be different from that whereby 

 additions are made to the stock. 



The record of knowledge is the index, as it were, 

 while the original discovery is the labour of the book ; 

 and every one must have felt the advantage that there 

 is in consulting a book by the help of a well-arranged 

 index. An index to the words of any one book is 

 most convenient for consultation, when it is arranged 

 in alphabetical order ; but an index to the productions 

 of nature requires a different form, because each of 



