142 POEEST CULTUKB AND 



umes, can readily be attached and rendered explana- 

 tory of such collections. A prize held out by the 

 patrons of any school might stimulate the juvenile 

 gatherer of plants to increased exertions ; his youth, 

 ful mind will be trained to observation and reflection 

 and the faculties of a loftier understanding will be 

 raised. 



To the adult also, and particularly often to the 

 invalid, new sources of enjoyment may thus be dis- 

 closed. What formerly was passed by unregarded 

 will have a meaning ; every blade over which he 

 stepped thoughtlessly before will have a new inter- 

 est ; and even what he might have admired will gain 

 additional charm ; but while penetrating wonders he 

 never dreampt of before he ought piously to ask who 

 called them forth ? 



"Bright flowers Bhall bloom wherever we roam, 



A voice Divine shall talk in each stream ; 

 The stars shall look like worlds of love. 



And this earth shall be one beautiful dream.*' 



Tkoi. Moon's Iriih Melodia. 



What one single plant may do for the human race 

 is perhaps best exemplified by the Cotton-plant. The 

 Southern States of North America sent to England in 

 1860 nearly half a million tons of cotton (453,622 tons), 

 by which means, in Britain alone, employment was 

 given to about a million of people engaged in indus- 

 tries of this fabric, producing cotton goods to the 

 value of ^121,364,458. From rice, which like cotton 

 will mature its crop in some of the warmer parts of 

 Victoria,* sustenance is obtained for a greater num- 

 ber of human beings than from any other plant. In 



* Particularly if the hardy mountain rice of Ohina and Japan is chosen, 

 which required no irrigation. The ordinary r}ce ina been grown M (ar 

 notfh as ^omburdy, 



