154 
ON THE PLEASURES OF GARDENING. 
views the bud as it swells, looks into the expanded blossom, and delights in its 
rich tints and fragrant odours ; but above all, he feels a charm in contemplating 
the precise conformation and mutual adaptation of its organs, and the undeviating 
regularity with which their various metamorphoses are effected ; before which, all the 
combined ingenuity of man dwindles into nothingness. For while the simple cul- 
tivation and management of flowers is productive of much innocent pleasure, how ' 
immensely is that pleasure enhanced when science is secured as its auxiliary ! The 
cultivator of flowers on whom the light of science has just dawned, feels like one 
emerging into a new sphere of existence. A multitude of subjects, previously 
unheeded, present themselves to his consideration, which as he proceeds to contem- 
plate them, diverge into successive series of interesting associations, and awaken in 
his mind emotions of pleasure and gratification of which he was before unconscious. 
Instead of being content blindly to follow the ordinary routine of management 
which example prescribes, he perceives that certain plants require a peculiar mode 
of treatment, and is led to inquire why that treatment is necessary. In prosecut- 
ing this investigation, other and more intricate subjects present themselves to his 
mind ; thus, inquiry begets inquiry, and one suggestion gives birth to another, 
until, in the solution of them, he discovers that all nature is governed by universal 
and unerring laws, that the annual changes to which plants are subjected are 
intended to answer specific and important ends, and that the whole chain of grada- 
tion in organized matter is linked together in the most perfect order and harmony. 
This knowledge attained, he suffers not the most trifling of nature's phenomena to 
pass unnoticed. The development of a leaf on the most familiar tree, offers a 
field for his observation, for he learns that it is destined to bring forth, nourish, and 
mature a germ, which is capable of producing a distinct tree, that in process of 
time would equal or even exceed in size the parent that forced it into existence. 
He observes the leaves wither and fall in the autumn without regret, informed that 
they have duly fulfilled their important functions, and that, were they capable of 
remaining, they would probably excite the young buds into premature action, and 
cause them to fall a prey to the inclemency of the coming season. 
But science is likewise capable of imparting an interest to the most common 
gardening operations. The pupil of science scatters his seeds into the ground and 
covers them with soil, because he knows that they must be thus excluded from 
light, and enveloped with soil, that the various genial gaseous elements involved 
in such a situation may stimulate the vital principle into action ; he, however, 
spreads the soil over them very lightly, since he is equally well aware that prox- 
imity to the atmosphere is alike essential to their germination. He watches the 
young seed-lobes as they appear through the ground, and in imagination perceives 
the little rootlet issuing simultaneously from the newly excited embryo ; the first 
leaves are soon formed, and calculating correctly on a similar extension and rami- 
fication of the root, he takes the earliest opportunity of transplanting it to its 
desired destination. This operation he either defers till dull and cloudy weather, 
