v. A TUFT OF MOSS. 81 



four, sixteen, thirty-two. No seed-vessel is ever 

 found with an intermediate number. In the vast 

 majority of species the number of teeth is thirty-two. 

 This is also the number of teeth which the most perfect 

 animals possess. In man the first set contains twenty, 

 and to these in the permanent set twelve are added, 

 making thirty-two in all. Other parts of animals are 

 remarkable for the constancy of these numbers when 

 the development is complete; the body of man and 

 of the flocks and herds associated with him having 

 ten fingers and ten toes, which being added to the 

 three parts of both arms and of both legs, make in 

 all thirty-two parts. This train of thought might be 

 extended to a great length and applied throughout 

 the vegetable and animal kingdoms. Two or four 

 and its multiples is the prevailing number in the lowest 

 orders of plants, according to which all the parts of 

 ferns, mosses, lichens, seaweed, and fungi are arranged. 

 Three, or multiples of three, is the typical number 

 of monocotyledonous or endogenous plants, without 

 branches and with parallel veins, to which the grass, 

 the lily, and the palm belong. Five with its multiples 

 is the model number of the highest class of plants with 

 branches and reticulated leaf-veins, to which the apple 

 and the rose belong. The same numerical relations 

 may be traced in the animal kingdom ; three being the 

 number of joints in the typical finger and the regnant 

 number in the Crustacea ; while five prevails among 

 vertebrate animals, and is of frequent occurrence among 

 marine forms of life, being the law of growth of star- 



