340 THE UNIVERSE. 



Other flowers, less regular in their habits, only open 

 under the influence of certain atmospheric conditions, from 

 which they have acquired the surname of meteoric. Some 

 of them have gained considerable celebrity. Among these 

 is the rain marigold, which, so soon as the dark clouds begin 

 to gather, closes its corolla with the greatest care, to pre- 

 serve it from the storm. The Siberian sow-thistle, of to- 

 tally different habits, accustomed to hoar-frost, seems to 

 dread our sun ; it only expands when the sky is cloudy, and 

 closes its flowerets tightly up so soon as the atmosphere 

 gets warm. 



The connection between man and the vegetable kingdom 

 is not limited to these curious investigations ; plants, living 

 emblems of the rapid passage of hours and time itself, eter- 

 nal lessons of wisdom, are associated with all our wants, our 

 pleasures, and our pains. 



The hardiest trees serve to build our dwellings with ; 

 other plants form our most natural food. 



Sometimes the existence of certain tribes depends on a 

 single vegetable species. A palm which grows in the for- 

 ests at the mouth of the Orinoco suffices for all the wants 

 of some savage races, who, in company with the monkeys, 

 live almost constantly perched, as it were, in the midst of 

 its foliage. It yields them food, wine, and even cordage to 

 swing the hammocks on, in which they suspend themselves 

 during the inundations. 1 



1 The palm spoken of here belongs to the genus Mauritia. It grows by the 

 banks of the Orinoco, along almost the whole course of its stream, and forms re- 

 markable forests near its mouth. u At the time of the inundations," says Hum- 

 boldt, " the tufts of the fan-leaved murichi (Mauritia flexuosa) present the ap- 

 pearance of a forest issuing from the bosom of the waters. The navigator, 



