136 BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. 



branches on the trunk. By this mathematical arrangement of 

 branches and leaves, the beauty of the tree is secured ; it has 

 greater strength, and the leaves are best distributed for contact 

 with the air. When the tree is injured or diseased, it sometimes 

 puts forth buds without order ; but we see at once that they 

 mar the beauty of the tree, and that the power by which it 

 builds up a symmetrical whole has been overcome ; for such 

 brandies never grow in any fixed relation to the parent stock. 

 They grow like independent plants, while every branch that 

 grows from the appointed place, at once bends itself in obedience 

 to the parent tree. 



A second matter of interest is the variety of habit in plants, 

 by which they are fitted to so much of the surface of the earth. 

 There are but few places where vegetation of some kind can not 

 be found. The variety of structure and of habit by which this 

 is secured is certainly worthy of an intelligent and wise Creator. 

 Not only does every zone have its vegetation, but every variety 

 of soil has its own peculiar plants. The various trees may 

 mingle together to form a forest, but the willows line the bor- 

 ders of streams, bind the banks together, and bathe their thirsty 

 roots in the water. The grasses weave their carpets in the 

 meadows, the dry and wet lands having very different kinds, 

 which always find their own place without the aid of man. The 

 humble lichen adorns the unyielding rock and the trunks of aged 

 trees. The fragrant lily lays its long roots beneath the water, 

 and floats its leaf and flower upon its surface. Some plants 

 cluster near the ocean, and others fasten upon the rocks where 

 its waves can wash them, and others still plunge deeper down, 

 and form gardens and groves beneath the waters. The feathery 

 palm finds its home in the torrid zone ; the hoary creeping willow 

 steals along beneath the snow towards the icy pole. Thus the 

 earth is covered with vegetation, and in the vast scale of adapta- 

 tions presented by the multitudes of species, every zone and 

 every soil is provided for. 



Not only are these plants fitted for every zone and every soil, 

 but they are also fitted to our place in the solar system. There 

 is a direct relation between the cycle of growth in ordinary 

 plants and the length of the year. The different zones have 

 indeed seasons of very different lengths, but. their plants cither 

 cannot grow in other zones at all, or if they do, they as a 



