37o FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. 



have many examples of. the infinitely little, but not 

 of the infinitely great. 



Whether we study plant life in its largest or its 

 most minute manifestations, in its simplest or most 

 eccentric forms, through its normal development or 

 exhibiting strange phenomena, we are induced to 

 join with Horatio Smith in his exquisite hymn — 



'Neath cloistered boughs, each floral bell that swingest 



And rolls its perfume on the passing air, 

 Makes Sabbath in the fields, and ever ringest 

 A call to prayer. 



Not to the domes, where crumbling arch and column 



Attest the feebleness of mortal hand, 

 But to the fane, most catholic and solemn, 



Which God hath planned. 



To that cathedral, boundless as our wonder, 



Whose quenchless lamps the sun and moon supply ; 

 Its choir the wind and waves, its organ thunder, 

 Its dome the sky. 



There, as in solitude and shade I wander, 



Through the green aisles, or stretched upon the sod, 

 Awed by the silence, reverently ponder 



The ways of God. 



