INTEREST OF PLANTS. 21 I 



history of them. But the plant stands still, and we 

 can examine it ; can watch it from the moment that it 

 is a seed, till its energy be exhausted in the production 

 of millions ; and though the manner in which it per- 

 forms its functions has hitherto defied our philosophy, 

 we have still enough to occupy our attention, and ex- 

 cite our admiration. One of the most valuable proper- 

 ties of vegetables is their inflammability ; and to man, 

 in a savage state, they are at once the fuel and the fire ; 

 furnish him with that which is his peculiar character- 

 istic, and protect him from the inclemency of the wea- 

 ther, and the night-attacks of those animals for which, 

 in. strength and swiftness, he is no match. He collects 

 a bundle of sticks, rubs one against another till it be 

 ignited, the whole are soon in a blaze, and the result is 

 both light and safety. Then the wonderful durability 

 of some of the species. We read of beams that are 

 undecayed, though they have been in the service of 

 man for more than a thousand years ; and the great 

 chesnut tree at Tamworth, in Staffordshire, is reported 

 to have stood from the year 800 to the year 1762, and 

 to have produced perfect fruit in 1759, a duration, 

 compared to which, that of any animal is but as a span. 

 Vegetables have this further advantage, that they are 

 found every where, and at all seasons; and therefore 

 those who study them may have constant mental occu- 

 pation ; nor is there any one capable of observing at 

 all, that may not, by that study, add something to the 

 common stock of knowledge. To what an extent that 

 may be done, can be so far understood when it is 

 borne in mind that the cultivation of vegetables reaches 



