14' 
QUESTIONS FOR INVESTIGATION. 
ters on the piece of mulberry wood found 
by Mr. Layard among the ruins of Nineveh, 
but it bore inscriptions in the peculiarities 
of its own structure, which enabled the dis¬ 
coverer to assign it a place amidst the 
things of life. 
In the investigation of fossil botany, some 
acquaintance with the structure of living 
plants is necessary, since the principal dis¬ 
coveries in the one science are founded on 
the ascertained facts of the other. 
We propose therefore to describe briefly 
the organization and mutual relations of 
existing vegetables, in order that we may 
proceed from the know n to the unknowm, 
and investigate the caverns of the earth by 
the light of a torch kindled at its surface. 
Order is heaven’s first law,” is the ill 
expressed utterance of the general truth, 
that all the objects we see around us are 
connected together in a system of mutual 
relations. Thus there is an exact corres¬ 
pondence between the structure of a plant, 
and its situation; and a resemblance be¬ 
tween every kind of plant, and some other 
kind. These phenomena are of indepen- 
