SECRETARY'S REPORT. 137 



general thing still require tlie whole year, as they did in their 

 own locality. There is for each species a proper season for the 

 germination of the seed, or for the unfolding of buds already 

 formed, a time for growth, and a time for maturing seeds or 

 buds for the succeeding year. There is indeed great power of 

 adaptation, especially among cultivated plants, so that they are 

 subservient to the artificial conditions that inan can bring to 

 bear upon them. But even under the artificial conditions of the 

 hot-house they have their cycle of growth. Such plants of the 

 torrid zone as seem to have little annual change, show their 

 adaptation by their power to endure the climate of that region. 

 But after all the exceptions that can be pointed out, not one can 

 be mentioned that militates against the statement that the plants 

 upon the earth are adjusted in their changes and growth to our 

 distance from the sun and our movement through the heavens. 

 The unfolding leaf, the bundles of fibres in the trunk, and the 

 maturing buds and fruits, all know their time by the earth's 

 position among the stars. 



How strange it is, that the early frosts have power to kill the 

 full-grown leaf on our fruit and forest trees, but not even the 

 icy fierceness of winter's cold, can harm the young and tender 

 leaf and flower folded in the bud. They have not yet done 

 their work, and therefore they are preserved. But what expla- 

 nation can be given as to how it is done ? They are carefully 

 packed and protected, indeed, and this has been regarded as an 

 evidence of design ; but the whole bud is exposed and frozen in 

 spite of its skilful structure. The mature leaf, though protected 

 with ten times the care, could not withstand the cold to which 

 the bud is exposed. Is that power in the young leaf, which 

 withstands the frost, any less wonderful than the structure of the 

 leaf or bud ? Is it any satisfactory ex])lauation to call it natural, 

 the nature of the bud ? How came the bud by this nature ? 

 If wo were left to reason upon the subject, we should infer that 

 the tender, unexpanded leaf would be the first to feel the blight 

 of winter. By what process of development was this strange 

 power given to the bud — this unexpected superiority over the 

 full-grown leaf ? Is any other account so reasonable as to sup- 

 pose this power was given by a wise Creator, who understood the 

 conditions of the globe, and gave to the plants, to the leaf and 

 bud, the exact power they needed to meet those conditions ? 



IS* 



