LINNiEUS. 191 



alluvial lands are usually extremely fertile. The quantity 

 of habitable surface is constantly increased by these opera- 

 tions; precipitous cliffs are gradually made gentle slopes, 

 lakes are filled up, and islands are formed at the mouths of 

 great rivers. In these series of changes, connected with the 

 beauty and fertility of the surface of the globe, small quan- 

 tities of solid matter are carried into the sea ; but this seems 

 fully compensated for by the effects of vegetation in absorb- 

 ing matter from the atmosphere, by the production of coral 

 rocks and islands in the ocean, and by the operation of vol- 

 canic fires. 



What does not fade 1 the tower, that long had stood 

 The crash of thunder, and the warring winds, 

 Shook by the slow but sure destroyer. Time, 

 Now hangs in doubtful ruins o'er its base ; 

 And flinty pyramids and walls of brass 

 Descend ; the Babylonian spires are sunk ; 

 Achaia, Rome, and Egypt, moulder down. 

 Time shakes the stable tyranny of thrones, 

 And tottering empires rush by their own weight. 

 This huge rotundity we tread grows old , 

 The sun himself shall die, and ancient night 

 Again involve the desolate abyss. Armstrong. 



Questions. — 1. What is the basis of Werner's classification of 

 rocks ? 2. Into what five classes does he divide them ? 3. What is 

 said of primitive rocks ? 4. Transition ? 5. Fletz ? 6. Alluvial ? 

 7. Volcanic? 8. How does the decomposition of rocks produce a bed 

 for vegetation ? 9. Tend to the renovation of soils P [Note. Some 

 knowledge of geolog-y is daily becoming more necessary, for without 

 it, scarce a volume of travels or topography, a review or a journal, 

 can be read with all the interest it demands. The structure of the 

 country and the stratification of its mountains, are now as often and as 

 minutely described, as the plants and the animals which are found 

 upon their acclivities.] , 



LESSON 86. 



Biographical Sketch of Linmeus, 



Charles Linnaeus, the founder of modern botany, was 

 born in 1707, at a small village in Sweden, where his father 



