Practical Remarks on Gems. 61 



vital energies of vegetation. The process of nutrition, secretion, 

 and the circulation — processes, which are " highly complex, and 

 elaborate in plants," and which are influenced by a nervous agen- 

 cy in animals — are carried on in vegetables by some power, or 

 agency, as yet, imperfectly understood ; but which, in its nature 

 and results, is strictly analogous to the ganglionic system of nerves 

 in animals. 



We would not, however, be understood to express the opinion 

 that plants, either possess the power of volition, or, that their 

 vital movements are actually influenced by a nervous system. 

 This is not our belief But we have long been of the opinion, 

 that there are vital energies, or properties, developed in the 

 growth of vegetables, which are influenced by laws, that, as yet, 

 are imperfectly understood ; — laws which cannot be explained by 

 any of the known phenomena of organic chemistry. 



This subject still offers a wide and an interesting field for in- 

 vestigation. " On man," says a late elegant philosopher, " has 

 been conferred the high privilege of interpreting the characters of 

 the book of nature, and of deriving from their contemplation, 

 those ideas of grandeur and sublimity, and those emotions of 

 admiration and of gratitude, which elevate and refine the soul, 

 and transport it into regions of pure and more exalted being." 



Trees and flowers 

 Are social and benevolent, and he 

 Who oft communeth in their language pure ; 

 Roaming among them, at the cool of day, 

 Shall find like him who Eden's garden drest, 

 His Maker there to teach his listening heart ! 



Art. X. — Practical Remarks on Gems, especially on some of 

 those found in the United States ; in a letter addressed to C. 

 A. Lee, M. D., and by him communicated for insertion in this 

 Journal ; by Thomas Taber, a practical Jeweller. 



Dear Sir, — The following remarks relate principally to the 

 second class of Gems, of which many localities in our own and 

 neighboring states furnish no despicable supply. I have received 

 a number of choice specimens from Chester County, Penn., 



