32 PHENOMENA OF PLANT-LIFE. 



light and darkness and the seasons I One of the 

 greatest privileges we enjoy in these modern times is 

 the perception, in some small degree, of these wonder- 

 ful laws and processes. They were quite unknown 

 to the ancients. To them was given only the external 

 grandeur of the universe, -. — more than ample, without 

 doubt, to fill the soul of man with rapture for ever 

 and ever ; and though we often speak of the " good 

 old times," and are half inclined to wish that our lot 

 had been cast with that of the patriarchs, these are 

 much more really the good times, when more is spread 

 out by a thousandfold for the delight of our intelli- 

 gence and the inspiration of our fancy ; — these, 

 moreover, are really the old times, for in those that are 

 wrongfully so called, the world, and man, and knowl- 

 edge, were not old, but very young 



It is a striking and curious fact that very few seeds 

 are deleterious, and that those produced by plants 

 decidedly poisonous are, nevertheless, in many cases, 

 wholesom^ This is observable in the seeds of certain 

 plants of the gonrd kind, the juices of which render 

 them quite unfit for human food, yet the seeds are 

 farinaceous and nutritious. As odor is the prime duty 

 of flowers, so does service for food seem the essential 

 attribute of fruits and seeds, and taken one with 

 another, in truth there are very few that can be called 

 traitorous. It is further remarkable that plants which 

 secrete poisonous matters do, in some instances, store 



