354 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 



thing wanting to complete the mighty de- 

 sign, for however inconsiderable the agents 

 may appear to us, they are in the hands of 

 Divine Providence irresistible ; and those 

 things which we may think superfluous, are 

 still necessary and consistent with the great 

 and harmonious scheme. 



Philosophers tell us, that the mighty moun- 

 tains, whose adamantine sides have bid defi- 

 ance to ages, have at last been rent by the aid 

 of the smallest moss; and without its assistance 

 the ash, the cedar, the juniper, the palm, or 

 even the thistle, could have found no crevice 

 for their seeds. Rocks of all kinds, when 

 exposed to the air, are soon covered with a 

 velvet kind of moss, which imbibes the moist 

 atmosphere, and collects the passing dust, 

 until it has raised its little feathers, like a 

 miniature forest of pines, out of the earth of 

 its own collecting : this receives the seeds of 

 a larger species of lichen, that usurps the 

 soil of the first occupier, and drives it farther 

 upwards. The second variety collects more 

 rapidly both soil and moisture, until its curl- 

 ing leaves, entangle and cherish the seeds of 

 other plants, which by their more vigorous 

 growth destroy their nurse for their own 

 nourishment : these in their turn receive the 



