782 NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. 
“It would thus appear that specks of living matter may be born 
in suitable fluids, just as specks of crystalline matter may arise in 
other fluids. Both processes are really alike inexplicable — both 
products are similarly the result of the operation of inscrutable 
natural laws, and what seem to be inherent molecular affinities. 
The properties of living matter, just as much as the properties of 
aes Hee are dependent upon the number, kind, and 
mode of collocation of the atoms and molecules entering into its 
sitoa, There is no more reason for a belief in the exis- 
tence of a special “ vital force,” than there is for a similar belief 
in the existence of a special ‘ cry stalline force.” The ultimate el- 
ements of living matter are in all probability highly complex, 
whilst those of crystalline matter are comparatively simple. Liv- 
ing matter develops into Organisms of different kinds, whilst crys- 
talline matter grows into Crystals of diverse shapes. The greater 
modifiability of living matter, and the reproductive property by 
which it is essentially. distinguished from crystalline matter, seem 
both alike referable to the great molecular complexity and mobil- 
ity of the former. Crystals are statical, whilst organisms are dy- 
namical aggregates, though the evolutions of both marked by 
their peculiar characteristics, may be regarded as visible expres- 
sions testifying to the existence of one all-pervading power — 
“Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, 
And the round ocean, and ae living air, 
ago sash pe Apak and in the mind of man: 
spirit that ir ave 
All i thinking tetas all objects of all thought, 
And rolls through all things.’ 
NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. 
BOTANY. 
On THE LEVER-LIKE ANTHERS IN SALviA.—It must, I think, be 
evident to many observers that what we are prone to consider 
beautiful adaptations in the organs of flowers, are, as we should 
say of many of the operations of men, merely afterthoughts; that 
is to say that often parts would be formed without any idea of the 
uses which would be subsequently made of them. I have perceived 
this for some time, but hardly dared express it in the face of the 
universal belief that everything was designed for some special use 
and purpose. Last year, however, I submitted in these pages the 
