ON PLANTS. 



135 



Caroline. How beautifully contrived ! I shall not in 

 future take shelter from a shower, beneath a tree, with- 

 out thinking of it. 



Emily. What strikes me with the greatest wonder, in 

 these arrangements of nature, is the ease and simplicity 

 of the means employed : it is always a natural conse- 

 quence a thing of course ; it would require efforts to 

 prevent, rather than to produce such results : the facility 

 with which they are accomplished, does not draw our 

 attention ; but when we do observe and study them, we 

 cannot but feel their infinite superiority to the most com- 

 plicated contrivances of art. 



Mrs. B. The greater and more comprehensive the 

 mind that contrives, the more simple, in general, are the 

 means employed ; you may admire, therefore, but you 

 can scarcely wonder at the perfection of the economy of 

 Nature. 



In order to form correct ideas on the theory of water- 

 ing, we must distinguish between the means which are 

 natural aud those which are artificial. The former con- 

 sists in rain, dew, and the melting of snow. Since it is 

 beyond the power of science to augment or diminish the 

 quantity of rain by a single drop, or to accelerate or re- 

 tard, by a single minute, the period of its falling, we must, 

 with great humility, limit our efforts to the study of the 

 signs of the times and seasons of approaching rain, in 

 order to modify our culture, so that it shall receive ad- 

 vantage and not injury from it. 



Emily. Does not the barometer indicate the approach 

 of rain with tolerable accuracy ? 



Mrs. B. Far from it : according to the most exact 

 calculations, it is found that the descent of the mercury 

 is followed by rain only seven times out of eleven. 



Caroline. Then you have the hygrometer? 



Mrs. B. That is of little use as a sign of approach- 

 ing rain : it indicates merely the degree of moisture of 

 the spot in which it is situated, and gives us no insight 

 into the state of the upper regions of the atmosphere. 



753. What strikes Emily with the greatest wonder 1 ? 754. What 

 is necessary in order to forming correct ideas on the theory of watering 1 ? 

 755. What are the natural means of watering and what is said of them'? 

 756. What does Mrs. B. aay of the barometer as indicating the ap- 

 proach of rain ? 757. And of the hygrometer 1 ? 



