52 THE HARMONIES OF NATURE. 



the trunks of felled trees each of them most likely able to 

 produce a new individual ; and as every species of mushroom or 

 fungus is equally productive according to its size, we can easily 

 understand how these microscopical germs frequently float in the 

 air in countless myriads, until the casualties of wind and weather 

 again precipitate them upon the earth. 



The well-known instances of the dry rot in timber, or of the 

 potato and grape diseases, sufficiently prove how disastrous the 

 enormous reproductive powers of the fungi may become when 

 circumstances favour their growth ; but in many cases they are 

 extremely useful, by promoting the decomposition of decaying or 

 putrefying vegetable and animal substances, and thus hastening 

 their transition into new forms of life. 



The structure of the higher order of plants, such as have 

 flowers and seeds, is far more complicated than that of these 

 simple forms of vegetation, as they consist not merely of a more 

 or less closely aggregated or firmly woven cellular tissue, but 

 also of fibres and vessels that have grown out of that elementary 

 form, and minister to the wants of a more complicated organi- 

 sation. 



One of the most wonderful properties of the vegetable cell is 

 its power of elaborating such an amazing variety of products. 

 It receives or imbibes but few substances from the outer world, 

 water, carbonic acid, ammonia, and some other soluble salts ; but 

 with these few it is able to bring forth in its secret laboratory 

 all that can gratify the eye, the smell, or the taste of man. 



The beautifully tinted juices to which the flowers owe their 

 rainbow variety of colours, the sweet odours with which they 

 perfume the air, the gums, the balsams, and the resins, sugar 

 and starch, india-rubber and gutta-percha, medicines and poi- 

 sons in endless profusion, are all distilled or fabricated by the 

 vegetable cell. 



Even the humblest lichen, the smallest moss which clothes 

 the weatherbeaten rock, is a truly miraculous production ; how 

 then can we find words to express our admiration of those 

 thousands upon thousands of flowering herbs, shrubs, and trees, 

 whose endless and picturesque variety inspires every feeling- 

 heart with delight and gratitude ? 



While the northern bard praises the stately magnificence of 

 the oak, the Arabian minstrel sings the date-palm's stately 



