HORTICULTURAL REPOSITORY. 



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same Almighty Being, and that, in his arrangements I the flower. There is no corner of the earth where the 



with regard to the one, he had in view the necessities 

 of the other. 



[From Parke's Chemistry.] 

 ART. 1 §. — -Analysis of Vegetables. 

 It has been shown that water and atmospheric air are 

 the natural food of plants. Caloric is necessary to en- 

 able vegetables to decompose water and air ; and light 

 is equally requisite to give a part of the oxygen of these 

 substances a gaseous form, and to put it in a proper 

 •state to be thrown offby the leaves. The other portion 

 of oxygen goes to the formation of sugar and the vege- 

 table acids. The analysis of vegetables confirms this 

 theory ; for, however they may be examined, the result 

 is always the production of oxygen, hydrogen and car- 

 bon. Some plants yield also a portion of silica, and 

 others lime ; but these no doubt are taken up by the 

 roots from the soil. See Sir Humphry Davy's paper 

 on the silica found in the epidermis of reeds, &c. in 

 Nicholson's Journal of Philosophy, &c. for Hay, 1799. 

 When we consider that the many thousand tribes of 

 vegetables are not only aii formed from a few simple 

 substances, but that they all enjoy the same sun, vege- 

 tate in the same medium, and are supplied with the 

 same nutriment, we cannot but be struck with the rich 

 economy of Mature, and are almost induced to doubt 

 the evidence of those senses with which the God of 

 Nature has furnished us. That it should be possible 

 so to modify and intermingle a few simple substances, 

 and thence produce all the variety of form, color, odour, 

 &c. which is observable in the different families of ve- 

 getables, is a phenomenon too astonishing for our com- 

 prehension. Nothing short of Omnipotence could have 

 provided such a paradise for man. 



" Soft roll your incense, herbs, and fruits, and flowers, 

 In mingled clouds to Him whose sun exalts, 

 Whose breath perfumes you, and whose pencil paints." 

 The various orders of vegetables provided in every 

 part of the globe for the countless forms of animated ex- 

 istence, are eminently illustrative of the provident care 

 of the Creator, and show us how great and how good 

 is the Father of the families of the whole earth. The 

 following passage from St. Pierre's Studies of Nature is 

 so well calculated to impress this truth, that it is unne- 

 cessary to apologize for its introduction : — " The slug- 

 gish cow pastures in the cavity of the valley ; the 

 bounding sheep on the declivity of the hill ; the scram- 

 bling goat browses among the shrubs of the rock ; the 

 duck feeds on the water-plants of the river ; the hen, 

 with attentive eye, picks up every grain that is scatter- 

 ed and lost in th'? field ; the pigeon, of rapid wing, col- 

 lects a similar tribute from th? refuse of the grove; and 

 the frugal bee turns to account even the small dust on 



whole vegetable crop may not be reaped. Those plants 

 which are rejected by one are a delicacy to another, 

 and even amoiy the finny tribes contribute to their fat- 

 ness. The hog devours the horse-tail and hen-bane : 

 the goat, the thistle and the hemlock. All return in 

 the evening to the habitation of man, with murmurs, 

 with bleaiings, with cries of joy, bringing back to him 

 the delicious tributes of innumerable plants, transform- 

 ed, by a process the most inconceivable, into honey, 

 milk, butter, eggs, and cream." 



[From Good's Book of Nature'.]. 

 ART. 19.— Instinct. 

 In every organized system, whether animal, or vege- 

 table, and in every part of such system, whether solid 

 or fluid, we trace an evident proof of that controlling 

 and identifying power which phisiologists have denomi- 

 nated, and with much propriety, the principle of life. 

 Of its cause and nature, we know no more than we do 

 of the cause and nature of gravitation or magnetism. 

 It is neither essential mind nor essential matter ; it is 

 neither passion nor sensation ; but though unquestion- 

 ably distinct from all these, is capable of combining 

 with any of them ; it is possessed of its own book of 

 laws, to which, under the same circumstances, it ad- 

 heres without the smallest deviation ; and its sole and 

 uniform aim, whether acting generally or locally, is 

 that of health, preservation, or reproduction. The 

 agency by which it operates is that wiiich we denomi- 

 nate or should denominate instinct, and the actions by 

 which its sole and uniform aim is accomplished are 

 what we mean or should mean by instinctive actions ; 

 or to speak somewhat more precisely, instinct is the 

 operation of the living principle, whenever manifestly 

 directing its operations to the health, preservation, or 

 reproduction of a living frame, or any part of such 

 frame. 



The law of instinct, then, is the law of the living prin- 

 ciple : instinctive actions are the actions of the living- 

 principle ; and either is that power which characteris- 

 tically distinguishes organized from unorganized mat- 

 ter, and pervades and regulates the former as gravi- 

 tation pervades and regulates the latter, uniformly 

 operating by definite means in definite circumstances, 

 to the general welfare of the individual system or of its 

 separate organs ; advancing them to perfection, pre- 

 serving them in it, or laying a foundation for their re- 

 production, as the nature of the case may require. It 

 applies equally to plants and to animals, and to every 

 part of the plant, as well as to every part of the animal, so 

 long as such part continues alive. It is this which 

 maintains from age to age, with so much nicety and 

 precision, the distinctive characters of different kinds 

 and species ; which carries off the waste or worn out 



