VEGETABLE ORGANISATION. 
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worts. Of these last, the frond or leafy expansion of the Riccia natans 
affords a beautiful example of the cellular structure, and its general 
appearance comes very near to some of the Algce ; while, on the other 
hand, many of Jlingermannia (another genus of the liverworts) are 
almost as closely allied to the mosses. 
The mosses are universal favourites; and it is impossible, even for 
the most superficial observer, to have glanced over any of those beautiful 
plaDts without admiring the general elegance of their forms, and the 
extreme delicacy of their leaves and other parts. The most finished 
drawing can convey but a faint and imperfect idea of their extreme 
beauty. We must here have recourse to the microscope for ourselves, 
and, when thus examined, so as to display their internal structure— 
the modifications of cellular texture, as seen in their transparent leaves 
—the varied forms and delicacy of these parts—the curious structure 
of the filmy teeth which encircle the mouth of their capsules—the 
interest which attaches to these productions is increased ten-fold, and 
the reflecting mind is lost in the contemplation of the infinitely varied 
beauties of form and structure which proceed from the Master-hand, 
and which prevail in every department of nature. In the works of the 
Creator, there is nothing imperfect—nothing unfinished, whether in 
simplicity of design, or in the most delicate or refined construction. 
As far as our limited powers will enable us to comprehend it, the same 
sublime unity of purpose is displayed throughout. We look above us, 
and contemplate the vastness of the heavenly expanse—its brilliant orbs 
preserving their prescribed limits, and rolling through in perpetual 
harmony, and with never-varying regularity—and we feel lost in the 
vastness of the power and wisdom of that Divine Intelligence which 
has called them into being, and which presides over, directs, and regu¬ 
lates the whole. We are ready to exclaim with the psalmist, f What 
is man, that Thou art mindful of him ? and the son of man, that Thou 
visitest him ? * But shall we therefore infer, with the disciples of a 
false philosophy, that He regards not the beings whom he has called 
into existence ?—that He, having breathed into them the breath of life, 
there leaves them, and casts them aside as utterly beneath his attention 
and care ? Let us turn to the humble moss which groweth upon the 
wall, and to the insect fiutterer which revelleth its short hour in the 
setting: beams of a summer sun. We behold the same attention be- 
stowed upon these minute existences—the same care in the adaptation 
of the circumstances under which they are placed to the purposes which 
they are destined to fulfil. Can we, then, doubt that even ‘ the hairs 
of our head are all numbered,’ and that He who so clothed the grass of 
the field will fulfil all his purposes of love towards that being, who. 
