180 Plants. 



In plants there is an infinite diversity; 

 some aquire a long succession of ages to 

 bring them to perfection, while others at- 

 tain their full maturity in a few hours ; 

 some are of immense magnitude, while 

 others are of an inferior stature, descend- 

 ing by gradation till they become too mi- 

 nute to be cognizable by the senses. The 

 mighty baobob of Senegal, described by 

 Adanson,whose stem is 75 feet in circum- 

 ferance, stands a stately monument on the 

 face of the earth for many thousands of 

 years ; while the mushroom, which it 

 much resembles in form, springs up in a 

 day, perfects its seeds, and is withered to- 

 morrow ; and when we carry our views 

 still farther, into that immense profound 

 of minuteness which has but of late been 

 partly laid open to us by the invention of 

 the microscope ; into the class of mosses, 

 which are in some measure cognizable by 

 the naked eye, and still farther into the 

 more minute class of plants denominated 

 mould, which, even in those of the largest 

 species, are too small to have their parts 

 cognizable by the naked eye, and which, 

 when viewed by the best microscopes, 

 discover a series of existences diminish 



