THE WILD CLEMATIS. 113 



branch, light it, and running about, use it as their 

 seniors do the tobacco-pipe. They call it " smoke 

 wood," and the action of the breath constantly agi- 

 tating the fire, it will long continue kindled. The 

 pores are well seen by drawing some bright coloured 

 liquor into them. I have often observed the long 

 feathered part of the seed at the entrance of holes 

 made by mice on the banks, and probably in hard 

 seasons the seed may yield these creatures part of 

 their supply. The diversity of form and arrange- 

 ment in the pores of the roots, stems, and branches 

 of plants, and the nerves, air vessels, and fibres of 

 the leaves, are extremely wonderful and beautiful ; 

 and it is possible that all the genera, species, and va- 

 rieties, have more or less a different conformation of 

 some of these parts. It is from the agency of these 

 vessels, imbibing both from the air and the earth, 

 compounding, decomposing, and discharging, in a 

 way we know little about, that the sweetness of our 

 fruits, the oil, the bread, and wine to glad the heart 

 of man, proceed ; and grateful should we be for them. 

 From the vegetable world man derives his chief en- 

 joyments : much of his fuel, most of his food, and 

 the chief of his clothing, have once circulated in the 

 tubes of a plant. The clematis plant possesses the 

 power of preserving its verdure, and even thriving, 

 in situations and seasons^ when most other shrubby 

 vegetation fails or languishes. With us its roots 

 run amid loose stones, and in rocky places, far from 



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