12 FINAL CAUSES. 



coinbinatioiis, for their repetition in endless per- 

 petuity, and for their subordination to one Iiar- 

 luonious scheme of general good. 



The vegetable world is no less prolific in wonders 

 than the animal. In this, as in all other parts of 

 creation, ample scope is found for the exercise of 

 our reasoning faculties, and abundant sources are 

 supplied of intellectual enjoyment. To discrimi- 

 nate the different characters of plants, amidst the 

 infinite diversity of shape, of colour, and of struc- 

 ture, which they offer to our observation, is the la- 

 borious, yet fascinating, occupation of the Botanist. 

 Here, also, we are lost in admiration at the never 

 ending variety of forms successively displayed to 

 view in the innumerable species which compose 

 this kingdom of nature, and at the energy of that 

 vegetative power, which, amidst such great differ- 

 ences of situation, sustains the modified life of each 

 individual plant, and which continues its species 

 in endless perpetuity. Wherever circumstances 

 are compatible with vegetable existence, we there 

 find plants arise. It is well known that, in all places 

 where vegetation has been established, the germs 

 are so intermingled with the soil, that whenever the 

 earth is turned up, even from considerable depths, 

 and exposed to the air, plants are soon observed to 

 spring, as if they had been recently sown, in con- 

 sequence of the germination of seeds which had 

 remained latent and inactive during the lapse of 

 perhaps many centuries. Islands formed by coral 

 reefs, which have risen above the level of the sea, 

 become, in a short time, covered with verdure. 

 From the materials of the most sterile rock, and 

 even from the vet recent cinders and lava of the 



