62 OUR WOODLAND TREES. 
being the most vigorous individual which can be 
selected of its kind, to two sets of conditions of 
growth, each of which is the most favourable— 
in the matter of soil, moisture, and aspect— 
to the individual species, we shall find, in general, 
a wide divergence in the rate of growth. There 
is an equally wide divergence in the habits of 
plants between the various species. Trees, for 
instance, are distinguished from each other by the 
characters either of their trunks, of their limbs, of 
their leaves, or of their spreading, or other manner 
of growth. Without venturing to look for any 
explanation of the difference in the habits of dif- 
ferent plants, to the theory—relating to the origin 
of species—propounded by an eminent naturalist, 
we may be assured that, whatever causes have 
occasioned the infinite variations in the forms of 
life in the natural world, these variations have 
been planned and accomplished by the beneficent 
Creator in order to promote the greatest happiness 
of mankind. 
The method of cell division and multiplication 
is amongst the most interesting of the pro- 
cesses connected with the development of plant 
