98 FAMILIAR LES30XS IN BOTAXY. 



comprise an immense family of exceeding beauty, varied 

 and curious in construction, and presenting us every va- 

 riety of form, color, and condition. Some are fixed to the 

 rocks and sands below, some floating. In many, roots are 

 perfectly developed; again, a mere expansion of the stem 

 attaches them to the rocks ; others again show no sign of 

 either root or expansion, but spread into vast laminae, thin 

 and delicate, like yards of finest Florence silk, green, pur- 

 ple, and crimson, or they appear like bundles of irregular 

 tubes; while others present themselves as masses of tangled 

 threads. Here vast frond fans wave to and fro in the waters, 

 fastened by foot-stalks to the rocks, while above them' the 

 gulf-weed, buoyed by its air-bubbles, goes floating along 

 from Honduras to the Hebrides, dallying with the rosy 

 coral of the tropical seas, and anon weaving a shroud for 

 the adventurous sailor lost amid the icy waters of the 

 K'orthwest Passage. 



254. In contemplating these wonders of the land and 

 water, we can but exclaim, " Lord, lioio manifold are thy 

 works J in wisdom hast thou made them all; the earth is 

 full of thy riches ; so is the great and wide sea." 



255. We cannot dismiss the subject of the cryptogams 

 without speaking of the important w^ork that these pio- 

 neers of the vegetable v/orld perform. Geologists inform 

 us that they were the origin of all vegetable life. Making 

 their appearance upon the rocks that first emerged from 

 the bosom of the waters, they disintegrated these rocks, 

 and by this process and their own decay furnished soil for 

 more complex organization. Thus w^e see cryptogamous 

 plants preparing the way for endogenous, and they in their 

 turn for exogenous plants. 



256. Here we see a new cause for wonder and admira- 



254. What are we forced to exclaim in contemplating these wonders of the 

 land and st-a ? 



255. What can you say of the important work of the cryptogamous plant? 



256. W'hat new cause have wc for adoration of the Almighty • 



