•20 



NEW-YORK FARMER AN1> 



in the form of a mucilage, called cambium, it seems 

 that the internal woody part has no influence upon the 

 external growth. Yours, respectfully, 



Amos Eaton. 



— .v>9@8t(~ — 



[From the Christian Philosopher.] 

 ART. 17 .— Variety of Nature. 



As a striking evidence of Divine Intelligence, we 

 may next consider the immense variety which the Crea- 

 tor has introduced into every department of the material 

 world. 



In every region on the surface of the globe, an end- 

 less multiplicity of objects, all differing from one an- 

 other in shape, color, and motion, present themselves 

 to the view of the beholder. Mountains covered with 

 forests, hills clothed with verdure, spacious plains adorn- 

 ed with vineyards, orchards, and waving grain ; naked 

 rocks, abrupt precipices, extended vales, deep dells, 

 meandering rivers, roaring cataracts, brooks and rills ; 

 lakes and gulphs, bays and promontories, seas and 

 oceans, caverns and grottos — meet the eye of the stu- 

 dent of Nature, in every country, with a variety which 

 is at once beautiful and majestic. Nothing can exceed 

 t!ie variety of the vegetable Kingdom, which pervades 

 all climates, and almost every portion of the dry land, 

 and the bed of the ocean. The immense collections 

 of Natural History, which are to be seen in the muse- 

 um at Paris, show, that Botanists are already acquaint- 

 ed with nearly fifty-six thousand different species of 

 plants. And yet, it is probable, that these form but a 

 very small portion of what actually exists, and that sev- 

 eral hundreds of thousands of species remain to be ex- 

 plored by the industry of future ages. For, by far the 

 greater part of the vegetable world still remains to be 

 surveyed by the scientific botanist. Of the numerous 

 tribes of vegetable nature which flourish in the interior 

 of Africa and America, in the immense islands of New- 

 Holland, New-Guinea, Borneo, Sumatra, Java, Ceylon, 

 Madagascar, and Japan ; in the vast regions of Tarta- 

 rv, Tibet, Siberia, and the Birman Empire ; in the 

 Philippines, the Moluccas, the Ladrones, the Caroii- 

 nas, the Marquesas, the Society, the Georgian, and 

 thousands of other islands which are scattered over the 

 Indian and Pacific oceans — little or nothing is known 

 by ths Naturalist of Europe ; and yet it is a fact which 

 admits of no dispute, that every country hitherto explo- 



I- produces a variety of species of plants peculiar to 

 itself; and those districts in Europe which have been 

 frequently surveyed, present to every succeeding ex- 

 plorer a new field of investigation, and reward his in- 

 dustry with new discoveries of the beauties and varie- 

 of the vegetable kingdom. It has been conjectured 

 by some Naturalists, on the ground of a multitude of 

 observations, that " there is not a square league of 

 earth, but what presents some one plant peculiar to it- 



self, or at least, which thrives there better, or appears 

 more beautiful than in any other part of the world." 

 This would make the number of species of vegetables 

 to amount to as many millions as there are of square 

 leagues on the surface of the earth. 



Now, every one of these species of plants differs from 

 another, in its size, structure, form, flowers, leaves, 

 fruits, mode of propagation, color, medicinal virtues, 

 nutritious qualities, interna! vessels, and the odours it 

 exhales. They are of all sizes, from the microscopic 

 mushroom, invisible to the naked eye, to the sturdy 

 oak, and the cedar of Lebanon, and from the slender 

 willow to the Banian tree, under whose shade 7090 

 persons may find ample room to repose. A thousand 

 different shades of color distinguish thedifferent species. 

 Every one wears its peculiar livery, and is distinguish- 

 ed by its own native hues ; and many of their inherent 

 beauties can be distinguished only by the help of the 

 microscope. Some grow upright, others creep along 

 in a serpentine form. Some flourish for ages, others 

 wither and decay in a few months ; some spring up in 

 moist, others in dry soils ; some turn towards the sun, 

 others shrink and contract when we approach to touch 

 them. Not only are the different species of plants and 

 flowers distinguished from each other, by their different 

 forms, but even the different individuals of the same 

 species. In a bed of tulips or carnations, for example, 

 there is scarcely a flower in which some difference mav 

 not be observed in its structure, size, or assemblage of 

 colors ; nor can any two flowers be found in which 

 the shape and shades are exactly similar. Of all the hun- 

 dred thousand millions of plants, trees, herbs, and flow- 

 ers, with which our globe is variegated, there are not 

 perhaps, two individuals precisely alike, in every point 

 of view in which they may be contemplated ; yea, their 

 is not, perhaps, a single leaf in the forest, when minute- 

 ly examined, that will not be found to differ, in certaiif 

 aspects, from its fellows. Such is the wonderful and 

 infinite diversity with which the Creator has adorned 

 the vegetable kingdom. 



His wisdom is also evidently displayed in this vast 

 profusion of vegetable nature — in adapting each plant to 

 the soil and situation in which it is destined to flourish — in 

 furnishing it with those vessels by which it absorbs the 

 air and moisture on which ii feeds — and in adapting it to 

 the nature and necessities of animated beings. As the 

 earth teems with animated existence, and as the differ- 

 ent tribes of animals depend chiefly on the productions 

 of the vegetable kingdom for theirsubsistence, so there 

 is an abundance and a variety of plants adapted to the 

 peculiar constitutions of every individual species. This 

 circumstance demonstrates, thai there is a pre-contrivecl 

 relation and fitness bctv. en the internal constitution 

 of the animal, and the nature of the plants which afford 

 it nourishment ; and shows us, that the animal and the 

 vegetable kingdom? arc the workmanship of one and the. 



