LETTER XXVII. 



stifiTTia ; of course these threads are styles : where then 

 is the ovary ? You shall see. Just below the cup of 

 the calyx and above its stalk is a small oval swelling, 

 clothed with long delicate hairs ; it is hollow, and 

 bears a great number of ovules, arranged in two lines 

 upon its sides (jig. 3. &.) ; the styles are planted upon 

 its summit ; this then is the ovary, from which the 

 gooseberry is to be produced. You could hardly have 

 anticipated, before you began to study this science, 

 how curious and complicated an apparatus is necessary 

 for the production of so simple a fruit ; everything 

 you see is perfect, and in this tiny flower you have 

 all the parts which you could find even in the gigantic 

 MagTiolia, only not so many of them, and differently 

 arranged. And so it always is ; be quite sure that in 

 what may seem to you the most insignificant parts of 

 the creation, there is the same foresight, the same ad- 

 mirable contrivance, the same beautiful adaptation of 

 every part to the end it has to answer, and the same 

 care to ensure against all accidents its multiplication 

 after its kind, as in what we may habitually look upon 

 so inconsiderately as the most perfect of the Creator's 

 works. When rightly examined it will be fomid that 

 no one thing is more perfect than another ; each is 

 perfect after its kind ; imperfection is unknown in the 

 creation ; to argue otherwise is to argue against the 

 power and wisdom of the Deity. 



After a time the calyx-cup, the petals, stamens, and 

 stvles, shrink up and decay : at the same time the 

 ovary swells, the hairs upon its surface either harden 

 oi fall off^, its interior becomes succulent, the ovules 



