the universal order that exists in the natural 

 world.* 



Let us now return to our imaginary personage, 

 who has inhabited a volcanic island destitute of 

 vegetation, and has been supplied with food for 

 both man and beast from elsewhere. He has 

 seen rocks, and locomotive, sentient beings, and 

 nothing else. He quits his island, and lo I the 

 earth is covered with grass, and trees, and 

 flowers, and fruit, whose use soon becomes appa- 

 rent from the myriads of living creatures which 

 find their food there, but what is this new 

 appearance? Is it the rock shooting up into 

 crystals under the influence of the sun and rain, 

 as salt crystallizes from sea water ? But the 

 rock, when broken, retains its characteristic 

 forms and substance unchanged; our islander 

 pulls a herb or cuts a branch, he finds moisture 

 exuding from it, like blood from the flesh of an 

 animal ; and the uprooted, or cut portion withers 

 and decays. It has then, in common with the 

 animal, some interior mechanism for the trans- 

 mission of fluids, and some principle by which 



* To the recent works of Dr. Carpenter on Animal 

 and Vegetable Physiology, and to Professor Henslow's 

 ' Principles of Descriptive and Physiological Botany," 

 the writer thankfully acknowledges much obligation. 



