P0LY20A AND TIW'ICATA. 



229 



and ever merging into one another. Xow tins would be 

 very puzzling ; and it would not be till after a great deal 

 of examination in detail, and a great deal of " putting 

 two and two together/' and many happy guesses, that 

 he would at length master the idea of a quincuncial 

 plan — the order of a net. 



But suppose that the net. instead of being woven on a 

 single plane, as all our nets are formed, were made to in- 

 crease in every possible direction — a net to be estimated 

 by solid instead of superficial measure, like the cells which 

 go to make up the pulp of an apple — how would the 

 plan be complicated ! And how much more of protracted 

 observation and study would be necessary before the in- 

 quirer could master this model by the slow study of a 

 bead at a time I 



Xow, we do not mean to say that the great plan of 

 Creation can be correctly represented by a series of 

 meshes in a plane, nor by a mass of cells in a solid, nor 

 by circles set circularly till a larger circle is formed, and 

 many of these set to constitute a still larger circle, and 

 then again others still larger; we will not set our seal to 

 any of those models, which have been from time to time 

 proposed with great confidence as <: the natural system."' 

 But the comparison may help some of our readers better 

 to appreciate the fact, that while there is a beautiful 

 order in creation, the existence of which is readily dis- 

 covered, it is an order, not simple, but highly complex in 

 its relations. 



A notable example of the breaking down of the linear . 

 arrangement occurs in a series of creatures which we have 

 now to introduce to our readers : a series which, com- 



