520 THE UNIVERSE. 



on the warm mud of our new-born globe to the ephemeral 

 organisms which die as they issue from the earth ; from the 

 wood which is substituted for iron to the gelatinous plant 

 which the slightest touch crushes ! And yet in the midst 

 of this inextricable chaos, science reveals to us order and 

 eternal wisdom. 



The sceptre of vegetation belongs to the oak. When 

 in the depth of night we wander amid the sombre and 

 stately precincts of Moimt Etna, the imposing majesty of 

 these denizens, centuries old, and the huge shadows of their 

 agitated and groaning summits, fill us with awe and terror, 

 and announce that we are in the presence of the king of 

 our forests. One dreads to hear the plaintive groans 

 which froze Dante with terror as they issued from the 

 black boughs of the Wood of Suicides. 



"lo sentia gia d'ogni parte trar giiai, 

 E nou vedea persona che'l facesse : 

 Perch' io tutto smarrito m'arrestdi." 



I heard from every part sounds of woe issuing, 

 Nor yet could see a being to utter tbem: 

 Whilst all astounded I stayed my steps. 



The palms, decorated with their waving crowns, are, 

 in the eyes of all, the emblem of tropical vegetation. 

 Poets have often siuig of their magnificence; and Linniieus, 

 impressed Ijy their brilliant appearance, decorated them 

 with the name of "princes of the vegetaljle kingdom." 



But those who travel in the East, which the great Swed- 

 ish l.iotanist never did, find that masses of palms are far 

 from having the grand and imposing look of our European 

 forests. They form only a vista of naked and monotonous 

 columns, the leafy dome of which alloAvs the rays of the 

 sun to pass through; hence a popular saying of the ancients 

 tells us that "no person can travel with impunity beneath 



