34 INTRODUCTION. 



their progeny have degenerated, age after age, till at 

 last they have become extinct. 



Now by the floating of the pollen, and the carrying 

 it from flower to flower by insects, the pollen of one 

 plant is often applied to the pistil of another, and the 

 race prevented from degenerating. In some instances 

 this produces a little confusion. Thus, if cabbages and 

 turnips, and greens and cauliflowers, all blossom toge- 

 ther in the same field, the seeds are apt to be con- 

 founded, and produce different plants from those on 

 which they grow. It is the same with fruits and 

 berries, and also with flowers. The pips of apples, 

 the seeds of gooseberries, and those of the garden- 

 flowers that are sown in beds, produce many sorts, 

 and of those some are altogether new. In gardening 

 this is attended with considerable advantage. Seed- 

 ling pinks, auriculas, and other flowers, are often ob- 

 tained of much greater beauty than the parent plants ; 

 and some of the best strawberries and apples have 

 been procured by the same means. 



But, in the forms and habits of vegetables, curious 

 though they are, we have only what may be called the 

 still life of nature ; and it is only when we turn our 

 attention to animals, that we feel it in all its wonders. 

 The plant remains in one place, drawing its nourish- 

 ment from the earth below, and the atmosphere around ; 

 and when these do not afford the proper quantity and 

 quality, the plant languishes and dies. But among 

 animals we find all the instincts and apparatus of loco- 

 motion, as well as instruments and arts necessary for 

 the obtaining of that upon which they live. Their 

 motions are of every degree of swiftness, from that of 



