DIVINE BENEVOLENCE. 185 



such intense brilliancy that the eye can scarcely, 

 rest upon them. A great variety of plants, 

 with large blossoms, adorn the heights of this 

 region, among which are prominent the lovely 

 anemones, various species of primroses, etc., 

 and on the South American mountains, inimu- 

 lus, (monkey flowers and musk plants,) calceo- 

 larias, lupins, and several species of sida, a 

 genus allied to the mallows, but with remark- 

 ably beautiful and large flowers. 



" Tree nor shrub, 



Dare that drear atmosphere : no polar pine 

 Uprears a veteran front : yet there ye stand 

 Leaning; your cheeks against the thick ribb'd ice, 

 And looking up with brilliant eyes to Him 

 Who bids you bloom, unblanched, amid the waste 

 Of desolation." 



We have now glanced rapidly at the won- 

 derful diversity of vegetable life with which oui 

 bountiful Creator has clothed this earth, and 

 have endeavoured to explain the most impor- 

 tant of the known causes which regulate their 

 distribution. But, however interesting such 

 inquiries may be, there remains for our con- 

 sideration the great practical lessons which 

 these investigations properly suggest, and 

 without a due regard to which all scientific 

 pursuits are " vanity." We see exemplified, in 

 a very remarkable manner, the goodness and 

 wisdom of our heavenly Father. How won- 

 derfully varied are the vegetable productions of 

 our globe, and how marvellous is the wisdom 

 which, out of one form of life, can produce so 

 astonishing a number of species, performing 

 16* 



CRAMPTON ACCESSION 



