OKGANIC AND INORGANIC MATTER COMPARED. C9 



larger at a certain stage of existence than will 

 be the pupa, or the perfect image ; but then 

 tl;ey are replete with fluid, from which the 

 organism of the perfect insect in a more con- 

 centrated form is to be produced. The cater- 

 pillar feeds voraciously on the leaves of plants, 

 and makes havoc in the garden ; the butterily 

 sips the honey of the flower. 



The duration of the natural life of animals 

 and of vegetables is very different in different 

 species ; but here, also, some peculiarities 

 are observable. For example, some insects 

 live for one, two, or three years in a larva 

 state, but soon die when the perfect form is 

 assumed, the female having time only to deposit 

 her eggs. In this point of view the ephemera 

 is not, as generally supposed, the being of a 

 single day. 



As among animals, so among plants, the 

 duration of life is very variable ; some, from 

 the germination of the seed in spring, endure 

 only to the close of autumn. To others a life 

 of two or three years is allotted ; while others 

 attain not to maturity under centuries, and at 

 length decay — the wrecks of ages. Yet some 

 trees may be said never to die. The banyan - 

 tree, (Ficus Indica,) forming a limited forest by 

 the "rooting into the earth" of its dropping 

 suckers, multiplies its own existence, and as 

 each newly-formed tree is in more or less im- 

 mediate communication with the parent trunk, 

 so this trunk, the patriarch of a vegetable 

 nation around it, perpetually renews its vigour. 



