40 ON THE STUDY OF 



which our attention can be directed. We may 

 indeed admire and dwell upon the beauty and 

 endless variety with which Providence has been 

 pleased to adorn this most interesting part of the 

 creation ; and we may find it convenient to set 

 down in our memories the class, order, and 

 species to which each particular plant may be- 

 long, so that we may the more readily recognize 

 it when brought under our notice ; but it is the 

 economy and laws by which the vegetable king- 

 dom is regulated, and their various operations and 

 corresponding effects, that render the science a 

 matter of deep interest, or entitle it to a place in 

 the school of philososhy. 



When we reflect that the acorn, a seed of com- 

 paratively small magnitude, contains within its 

 enclosure every part, in miniature, of the mighty 

 oak its trunk, branches, leaves, bloom, and 

 seed ; and that by the simple agency of the soil 

 to which it is applied, aided by caloric or heat, 

 air, and water, all these parts are gradually de- 

 veloped and expanded to the magnitude, order, 

 and beauty in which we so frequently see them; 

 when we know that the smallest seed, that even 

 requires microscopic aid to bring it under the 

 power of vision, or the most diminutive root by 

 the same process, possesses a similar capability 

 of being rendered a perfect plant of comparatively 

 no trifling dimensions ; when we take into con- 

 sideration that each plant has vessels, absorbents, 



