THE WONDERS OF VEGETATION. H 



opment of each one of the various plants that grows 

 on the face of the globe, the wonder would be propor- 

 tionately greater. No two different species present 

 the same phenomena, and from the time of the ap- 

 pearance of their first leaves, to the ripening of their 

 fruits, they offer each a different spectacle. 



Some plants guard their flowers from every glance, 

 and seem averse even to showing their stems and 

 leaves ; others again, appear to have been . created 

 only for show, and display to the dazzled glance their 

 wealth of sparkling and magnificent colors ; still oth- 

 ers seem to be of a more serious character, and, dis- 

 daining the frivolity of their gay companions, do not 

 reveal their existence till the time when their ripened 

 fruits attest their usefulness. Here the eye looks 

 amazed at the undiminished vigor of an aged oak, 

 which has seen in the time of our ancestors, proces- 

 sions of Druids pass through the gloomy forests, and 

 which is so old that it forgets the number of its years, 

 during which winds and tempests have in vain tried 

 to uproot the colossal structure. There we behold 

 a plant so fragile that it can hardly bear being touched, 

 and resents the fluttering of a bright-colored bird by 

 a painful shrinking of all its leaflets. But we have 

 not yet spoken of the marvellous wealth of colors. 

 "What pencil can reproduce those various tints that 

 adorn our beautiful flowers? In the meadows we 

 trample under foot whole hosts of tiny blossoms which 

 hide in the grass ; purple petals overhang the banks 

 of the stream whose murmur attracts us; at the roots 

 of great protecting trees wild violets exhale their 



