92 OSCILLATIONS OR VIBRATIONS 



exercising any reciprocal influence on each otlier ; but the 

 cells of plants, which united together form their tissues, 

 or the solid substance of their organs, act and react upon 

 each other and upon the sap as it passes through them. 

 Cell and crystal cannot therefore he compared with one 

 another ; for the cell lives, but the crystal is dead. The 

 celebrated IS'aturalist, Linnaeus, thus expresses himself in 

 his Philosophical Botany : " Stones grow. Vegetables 

 grow and live. Animals grow, live, and feel."* These 

 definitions, remarkable for their brevity and clearness, 

 have never yet been sui'passed. They imply a profound 

 knowledge of ITature, and are worthy the revered memory 

 of a man to whom the world must ever be indebted. 



But we have shown the cell to be the " lowest and 

 simplest individual elementary organ" employed by ISTa- 

 ture in the construction of the tree. Out of the cell springs , 

 forth organic life. Each animal and plant begins with a 

 cell, and all the organs of the same are formed out of cells. 

 Therefore, the increase in number of its cells, their indi- 

 vidualization and association into tissues, constitute the 

 living building material out of which the entire fabric of 

 the tree is constructed ; and the tree is therefore no stiff, 

 unyielding form, but a living, elastic, and easily impres- 

 sible body, whose movements are, in fact, as fluctuating as 

 those of the mercurial column in the tube of a barometer. 



And, first of all, let us contemplate vegetative Nature in 

 her simpler forms. Let us study the life-history of one of 

 those lowly native annuals, besprinkled, as it were, in 

 kindness, in the Spring of the year, over the landscape, 

 by that sublime Providence who guides all ]!>J"ature, 

 ruling alike the movements of atoms and the roll of 

 worlds. From the first breaking forth of life in the seed, 

 there is continual motion and activity, — a regular cycle 

 of leaves until growth culminates ; the plant then flowers, 

 arrives at the condition of a seed, and enters on the stage 

 of rest. The entire axis, and all its appendages, — its roots, 

 leaves, and flowers — ^have perished ; for into the seed the 



* Lapides crescunt. Vegetabilia crescunt et vivunt. Animalia cres- 

 cunt, vivunt, etsentiunt. — Philosophia Botanica, a Carlos Linnceus. 



