" / often think, 7vhen working over my plants, of what Linnaeus once 

 said of the utifo/ding of a blossom : ' I saw God in His glory passing near 

 me, and bowed my head in worship J' The scientific aspect of the sa?ne 

 thought has been put into words by Tennyson : — , 



' Flower in the crannied wall 

 I pluck you out of the crannies, 

 I hold you here, root and all, in my hand 

 Little floiver, — but if I could understand 

 What you are, root and all, and all in all, 

 I should know what God and man is.' 



JVo deeper thought was ever uttered by poet. For in this world of plants, 

 which, with its magicia?i, chlorophyll, conjuring with sunbeams, is cease- 

 lessly at work bringing life out of death, — in this quiet vegetable world we 

 may find the elemeritary principles of all life in almost visible operation^ 

 — John Fiske in " Through Nature to God." 



XVI 



