58 VOICES FROM THE WOODLANDS. 



useful, too, for life could not be sustained without them ; 

 and without their wondrous chemistry, both men and 

 animals would be suffocated by that deleterious vapour, 

 which, although invisible, is continually ascending, or 

 spreading like a low creeping mist upon the earth. But 

 millions of small laboratories are stationed on every side, in 

 leaves or wayside grasses, in ferns or mosses, or even in 

 crustaceous lichens throughout every modification of vege- 

 table life, from the towering cedar to the creeping bramble, 

 from the magnificent palm to the smallest daisy ; and thus 

 is atmospheric air rendered fit for respiration by their 

 united agency. 



Another lesson may yet be learned from the harmony 

 which subsists throughout creation, from the active minis- 

 try of air and light, and the dependence of one plant upon 

 another : a truth thus beautifully shown forth in the 

 following elegant and original poem : 



" There was fern on the mountain, and moss on the moor ; 

 The ferns were the rich, and the mosses the poor. 



