PROVISION OF CREATIVE POWER. 263 



soon as it is fully developed, and has acquired strength, and 

 the sun's rays are necessary to perfect its colours, it expands 

 to the full light of day. The violet, again, while its seed is 

 forming, shades the capsule by its purple corolla ; but as soon 

 as the seeds are ripe, and they are required to spring to some 

 distance from their capsules, the flower immediately rises up 

 with the cup for its support, and flings abroad its offering 

 on the earth's maternal bosom. Adaptations of this kind are 

 frequent and striking in the vegetable kingdom, and surely 

 one is justified in regarding them as the work of an all- 

 powerful and all-wise Creative Mind. Look, for instance, at 

 the orchis : it grows on the ground in Europe, and is conse- 

 quently provided with roots formed of large lobes ; but when 

 it festoons the pillar of the virgin forests of the New World, 

 its roots are formed of a number of fibres, so that they may 

 penetrate the bark of the tree. 



But to return to our pimpernel. It was at one time called 

 Centunculus, from cento, a covering, because it spread in such 

 abundance over the cultivated fields. Its botanical name was 

 afterwards changed to Anagallis arvensis. Anagallis signifies 

 " to laugh," and there existed an old belief that a decoction of 

 the pimpernel acted as a remedy against melancholy, and a 

 provocative of mirth. 



The seeds of this plant are very numerous. They are 

 enclosed in small capsules, and eaten by the birds. 



There is only one other British species of pimpernel, 

 the Anagallis linetta, or bog pimpernel, which it would be 

 unpardonable if the botanist omitted to notice, so delicately 



