THE COASTS OF SICILY. 233 



It is impossible not to recognise in this uniformity 

 of action the influence of one sole and constant 

 cause. Considered from this point of view, life, or 

 that mysterious force which alike animates the alga 

 and the oak, the infusorium and the elephant, 

 becomes manifest to us as a universal cause, whose 

 intimate nature eludes our search and escapes our 

 grasp, but which, appreciable through its character- 

 istic phenomena, remains always and everywhere the 

 same in its essential nature, notwithstanding the 

 infinite variety of its manifestations. 



temperature of the flower rose to 120, while that of the external 

 air was only 66, and consequently the flower had a temperature of 

 its own of 54. This phenomenon seems to be more especially 

 developed in the male flower. Whilst the temperature rises, we 

 also find that the respiratory process, which we observe in all flowers, 

 at the same time acquires an exceptional degree of energy. All 

 the different parts absorb large portions of oxygen, and exhale a 

 corresponding quantity of carbonic acid. The phenomena which 

 we have here indicated have been principally studied in the Arum 

 vulgar e and cordifolium, but they have also been noticed in 

 many species of the same family, and the reason of their not having 

 been elsewhere observed, may undoubtedly be owing to the fact, 

 that the heat thus produced is too feeble to be perceived by our 

 unaided organs. 



We must further observe that several other equally remarkable 

 circumstances are often associated in vegetables with the important 

 act of fecundation. Such, for instance, are the spontaneous move- 

 ments which we observe at this time in the stamens of the Nettle, 

 the Pellitory, the Rue, and the Barberry-tree, and in the stigma of 

 the Cactus, Passion-flower, &c. 



