12 
discover in vegetables the foundation of the linen which I wear—of the 
paper which hands down to us the wisdom of ages—those dyes which im¬ 
press on our garments their brilliant colours. To plants I am indebted 
for the wood which warms me in the winter, kindling into a blaze, resem¬ 
bling the sun I seem not now to want. Without timber my house could 
scarcely have been constructed; and when fashioned into ships, the world, 
which before was separated, with its produce, from me, by a vast expanse of 
waters, is now approached even to my very chamber. Hence I behold with 
still greater veneration those trees whose stout branches diveige on every 
side, yet possessing a foliage which agreeably quivers to every breeze, but 
whose mossy trunk shows an existence throughout ages. Under their vast 
shadows, listening to the songs of the inhabitants of the groves, I repose 
myself; leaving this retreat, I next tread over a rich carpet of innumerable 
flowers, whose varied enamel yet fixes the tender regards of that old mail 9 
who has so much and so often admired it in his youthP 
The beauties of nature, even those which feast the eye, are inexhaust¬ 
ible ! The colour of plants how friendly! Earth is brown, and the heavens 
blue—was vegetation more inclined to the brown, would it be seen? and 
were it blue, would it not be confounded with the waters and the sky—all 
either earth, or water, or sky? Throughout the magnificent picture of crea¬ 
tion, what a happy contrast with this brown hue and azure sky do the shades 
of green and red afford. The verdure smiles, and the flowery carpet, inter¬ 
mingled with varied forms, produces a dress which never tires. 
Thus nature relieves the vegetable world, and charms us with her ele¬ 
gance in a vast variety of forms—hence every object pleases, every object 
interests us, enraptured not only with her bolder sketches, with the grand 
and the magnificent; but in all her works, minute and howsoever small, you 
have to admire the delicate shades and the finest strokes and touches of her 
pencil, together with the brightest embroidery. If the mere sight of plants 
delights every eye, how much more refined then must be his pleasure who 
views Nature through the optics of science, to effect which will be the ob¬ 
ject of the following pages. 
