CORA AND KRONOS. 147 



13. There is one word in the Miltonian painting of them 

 which I must lean on specially ; for the accurate English of it 

 hides deep morality no less than botany. ' With hair implicit.' 

 The interweaving of complex band, which knits the masses of 

 heath or of Alpine rose into their dense tufts and spheres 

 of flower, is to be noted both in these, and in stem structure of 

 a higher order like that of the stone pine, for an expression of 

 the instinct of the plant gathering itself into protective unity, 

 whether against cold or heat, while the forms of the trees 

 which have no hardship to sustain are uniformly based on the 

 effort of each spray to separate itself from its fellows to the 

 utmost, and obtain around its own leaves the utmost space of 

 air. 



In vulgar modern English, the term ' implicit/ used of 

 Trust or Faith, has come to signify only its serenity. But 

 the Miltonian word gives the reason of serenity : the root and 

 branch intricacy of closest knowledge and fellowship. 



14. I have said that Milton has told us more in these few 

 lines than any botanist could. I will prove my saying by 

 placing in comparison with them two passages of description 

 by the most imaginative and generally well-trained scientific 

 man since Linnaeus Htimboldt which, containing much that 

 is at this moment of special use to us, are curious also in the 

 confusion even of the two orders of annual and perennial 

 plants, and show, therefore, the extreme need of most careful 

 initial work in this distinction of the reign of Cora from that 

 of Kronos. 



" The disk of the setting sun appeared like a globe of fire 

 suspended over the savannah ; and its last rays, as they swept 

 the earth, illumined the extremities of the grass, strongly 

 agitated by the evening breeze. In the low and humid places 

 of the equinoxial zone, even when the gramineous plants and 

 reeds present the aspect of a meadow, of turf, a rich decora- 

 tion of the picture is usually wanting. I mean that variety of 

 wild flowers which, scarcely rising above the grass, seem to lie 

 upon a smooth bed of verdure. Between the tropics, the 

 strength and luxury of vegetation give such a development to 

 plants, that the smallest of the dicotyledonous family become 



