FLOWERS OP' PLANTS. 
53 
elaborate mechanism and splendor of some species, and 
see the whole race of creation, with the exception of 
man, utterly regardless of them. Butterflies and other 
insects will bask on expanded flowers, and frequent 
their disks, but it is in wantonness, or to feed on the 
sweet liquors they contain. The carpenter bee, that 
every summer cuts its little circular patches in such 
quantities from my roses to line its nest in the old gar- 
den door, selects the green leaves only, chiefly from the 
China, Provence, and damask kinds,* passing over the 
petals of their blossoms as useless. That splendid in- 
sect the rose beetle ‘(cetonia aurata), that beds and 
bathes in sweetness, will partially eat the flowers of 
some species of roses, and “ lap the nectar they pro- 
duce and a few others nibble a little ; but the lilia- 
ceous tribes, and other glorious flowers, as far as we 
know, furnish to insects no supply, but expand, wither, 
and die, unnoticed but by the eye of man alone. Flow- 
ers that are grand, gay, cheerful or beautiful, predomi- 
nate infinitely over those that are of a sombre hue or 
gloomy aspect. Employment and occupation were as 
much the design, as they are found to be essential to 
the happiness of human life : we are not all constituted 
to soar in the higher regions of scientific research ; our 
dispositions are as various as our intellects. Horticul- 
ture was the first occupation instituted for man, and he 
cannot pursue a more innocent and harmless employ : 
we were given “ every herb, and every tree upon the 
face of the earth.” For food, or raiment, the immediate 
necessities of man, a very few of them are applicable ; 
but we can collect them for amusement, in admiration 
of their beauty. Without this beauty, they would be 
no object of research ; and man, who is exclusively sen- 
sible of its existence, can alone find pleasure in viewing 
it. The mind that is delighted with such admiration, 
must be almost insensibly led to an attendant pleasure, 
the contemplation, the perception of infinite wisdom 
* This bee does not exclusively make use of the leaves of rose for 
its purposes, as I have known it in some seasons cut away the young 
foliage of cytisus laburnum, even when growing in company with its 
favorite rose. 
E 2 
