INTRODUCTION. 19 
observation appear widely dissimilar or precisely 
the same, there will be abundant scope in the 
practical details of common everyday life, as well 
as in the higher walks of literature, science, and 
art. 
The study of these plants has also a tendency 
to elevate and enlarge our conceptions of nature ; 
its vastness and complexity, its incommunicable 
grandeur, its all but infinity, opening before us 
newer and more striking vistas with every de- 
scending step we take. The further we advance, 
and the wider our sphere of observation extends, 
wonder follows on wonder, till our faculties be- 
come bewildered, and our intellect falls back on 
itself in utter hopelessness of arriving at the end. 
Minute as the objects are in themselves, contact 
with them cannot fail to excite the mind, to call it 
forth into full and vigorous exercise, to enlist its 
sympathies, and to expand its faculties. Many 
eloquent pages have been written to show this 
elevating influence upon the mind, of contact with, 
and contemplation of the phenomena of Nature ; 
but it is not the great and sublime objects of 
Nature alone that produce this effect—the sub- 
limity of mountains, the majesty of rivers, and 
the repose of forests,—the very humblest and 
simplest objects are calculated to awaken these 
emotions in a yet higher and purer form. “The 
