371 



Argument from Botany. 



39. The argument of Unity amid almost endless Variety finds 

 an appropriate and interesting illustration in the science of 

 Botany. Here the connection between plan and form is re- 

 plete with many and striking coincidences. 



From the Lichen on the Alpine summits^ to the despised 

 weed of the same order on the coral reef — from the parasitic 

 fungus,, visible only by means of high microscopic power, to the 

 enormous parasite -jf in the Indian Archipelago — from the sweet- 

 scented vernal grass " in the dewy paths of meadows/^ to the 

 tree-like branching bamboo of tropical climes, there are many 

 varieties in form but only one plan. No man, at first sight, 

 could believe it possible that the common meadow-grass and the 

 sugar-cane are members of the same family. And yet the fact 

 is so. The varieties in the order of grasses (Graminece), how- 

 ever apparently dissimilar in form, are all alike in their general 

 features. 



40. Of the three hundred and twenty genera, including three 

 thousand eight hundred and fifty species, whatever variety may 

 exist as to the number and form of the different sets of bracts, 

 and the nature of the fruit, there is only one arrangement 

 throughout the entire family, which gives to it that unity of 

 plan, whereby they are recognized as belonging to the same 

 order. Wheat, oats, barley, rye, rice, maize, Guinea-corn, 

 millet, &c. &c., which supply green herb for the service of 

 man,^^ and the rye-grass, meadow-grass, sweet vernal-grass, 

 cocks-foot grass, Timothy-grass, and countless grasses besides, 

 which " give food for the cattle/' are all members of one wide- 

 spread family. They present the same peculiarities of organ- 

 ization and structure, however separated by continents and 

 centuries. "And, that which holds true with regard to the 

 variety of the family of grasses, is equally true in the case of 

 the other orders. There is the same Variety of form, the same 

 Unity of plan. 



The Constitution of the Human Mind. 



41. Difficult as it is to see two human faces that exactly 

 resemble each other, it is far more difficult to find two human 

 minds that see everything in the same light. 



" Fades non omnibus una, 

 Nec diversa tamen." — Ovid, Met, b. ii. 13. 



