INTEODUCTOEY EEMAEKS. Xui 



shall be burned up," and then shall there be ushered in " a new 

 earth," wherein righteousness shall dwell. We cannot but honour 

 the man, who, by his genius and talent, has been enabled to 

 develop one of the great laws of nature, and who feels and ac- 

 knowledges that he has been the humble instrument to Uft the 

 veil to a certain extent which conceals the workings of the 

 Almighty; but we have no sympathy with that discoverer in 

 science, who, puffed up with intellectual superiority, puts the laws 

 which he has elucidated in the place of the Creator, whose per- 

 sonality and ever-working omnipresence he ignores. 



In studying, therefore, the laws which are exhibited in the 

 economy of living beings, let us never, in the pride of science 

 and philosophy, forget Him who not only created all things but 

 upholds all things, and by whom all things consist. While 

 we apply ourselves with the earnestness of zealous students to 

 examine those wondrous works which are sought out of all that 

 have pleasure therein, let us take everything in connection with 

 that Word which is the sole record of Truth, and which, as coming 

 from the God of nature, must be in perfect harmony with the 

 laws of nature. 



The Botanist, in prosecuting his researches, takes an en- 

 larged and comprehensive view of the vegetation with which 

 the earth is clothed. He considers the varied aspects under 

 which plants appear in the different quarters of the globe, from 

 the Lichen on the Alpine summits or on the Coral reef, to the 

 majestic Palms, the Bananas, and Baobabs of tropical climes— 

 from the minute aquatics of our northern pools to the gigantic 

 Victoria of the South American waters — from the parasitic 

 fungus, only visible by the aid of the microscope, to the enormous 

 parasite discovered by EafSes in the Indian Archipelago. 



It is interesting to trace the relation which all these plants 

 bear to each other, and the mode in which they are adapted to 

 different climates and situations. The lichens are propagated by 

 spores or germs so minute as to appear like thin dust, and so 

 easily carried by the wind that we can scarcely conceive any place 

 which they cannot reacL They are the first occupants of the 

 sterile rock and the coral-formed island — ^being fitted to derive 



