32 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 



months with agreeable and cooling fruit; others, as 

 the rose, delight and please the eye by the beauty 

 of their flowers ; or regale the olfactory nerves with 

 the fragrance of their perfumes, as the sweet scented 

 briar: but how could these several ends have been 

 accomplished, if, by a more exalted exposure, the 

 fruit bearing bushes had placed their treasures be- 

 yond our reach every rose, with its back turned to 

 us. had been " born to blush unseen," and each aro- 

 matic shrub, removed far above the sense of smel- 

 ling, had literally been left 



" To waste its sweetness in the desart air." 



With regard to that considerable share of pliant 

 elasticity possessed by some of them, how easily 

 does this admit the branches .to be turned aside, and 

 to resume their former position, in gathering of the 

 fruit or flowers, and how serviceable does this pro- 

 perty enable us to make some of them in the form 

 of hoops, baskets, or wicker work of any descrip- 

 tion ; while the sharp-pointed prickles by which they 

 are armed, serve not only as weapons of defence for 

 themselves, but furnish us with cheap and secure 

 fences against the inroads of straggling cattle, and 

 the unwelcome intrusion of the unprincipled vagrant. 



Herbs in an especial manner may be said to> 

 constitute the food of man and beast, as well as to 

 yield their assistance in an infinity of ways; and 

 behold, in what profusion they spring forth; in 

 what numerous bands they appear ! Yonder, a field 

 of golden-eared wheat presents to the view a most 



