BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 27 



herbaceous order; and how wisely has this been or- 

 dered for the various purposes for which they were 

 created ; with the firmness of trees, to what a 

 prickly stubble must Nature's soft and downy carpet 

 have given way ? with the tenacity of shrubs, how 

 would it have answered as food for our cattle ? 



There are, besides, a number of other properties 

 and peculiarities in the vegetable kingdom, in which 

 the wonderful working of Divinity shines pre-emi* 

 nent. How strange, for instance, that if a seed is 

 sown in a reversed position, the young root turns of 

 itself downwards, while the stern refuses to sink 

 deeper in the soil, and bends itself round to shoot up 

 through the surface of the earth. How surprising, 

 that when the roots of a tree or plant meet with a 

 stone or other interruption in their progress under- 

 ground, they change their direction and avoid it. 

 How amazing, that the numerous shoots which 

 branch out from the root in quest of moisture, pursue 

 as it were by instinct the tract that leads to it ; will 

 turn from a barren to a more fertile soil ; and, that 

 plants shut up in a darksome room, bend or creep 

 to any aperture through which the rays of light may 

 be admitted. 



In these respects the vegetable tribes may be said 

 to possess something analogous to animal life ; but 

 here the resemblance does not drop how surprising 

 the phenomenon of what is called the sleep of plants, 

 and the sexual system of Linnaeus, founded on the 

 discovery that there exists in the vegetable, as well 

 as in the animal kingdom, a distinction of sexes ! 



