LETTER V. ferences from the preceding Facts-No spontaneous Production of Plants-Their reproductive System. My object in the preceding Letter has been, as it will be in the continuation of the subject in this, to select and notice those phenomena of the vegetable kingdom which will give you a just and enlarged idea of the principles on which it has been formed, and of the peculiar nature which has been purposely assigned to it. It is necessary that we should have right notions of the system on which our earth has been framed, and of the plan and purposes of all its departments, in order to perceive what the Divine mind has intended by our terrestrial creation, and thereby to judge more soundly on the great component whole. This knowledge will assist us to appreciate his ends and operations in the course of nature which he has established, and in the direction and application of his providential economy to ourselves, as well as to our inferior fellow-creatures. The more fully we know and the more justly we think on the vegetable and animal kingdoms, we shall be the better prepared to comprehend the principles and the history of his dealings with the human race. This world is manifestly not our world only. We are linked in it with innumerable fellow-beings, of very varying kinds and qualities. They are cotenants with us of our common earth. We cannot live in it without their association and services. Relations therefore subsist unceas ingly between us, which cannot be destroyed without destruction to ourselves; and from this view of the real state of things, it is an object of great intellectual interest and importance to become acquainted with the most material phenomena of these classes of animated nature, however dissimilar and subordinate they seem to be to our more gifted order. Do not, therefore, think me tedious if I par ticularize a few more facts on this curious subject, with such reflections as have arisen on a mature consideration of them. From all the circumstances thus far enumerated, we may infer That the vegetable classes have been created upon a sys tem of progressive improvability-and also of an indefinite productiveness, which can be increased to the utmost extent of any probable human demands upon it. That the application of human skill, care, and diligence to educe these beneficial results has been made the condition of their appearing; but that these valuable qualities will never be exerted in vain on this interesting order of beings. That human welfare and comfort have been a principal object of the Creator in designing and producing his vegetable world, though it has been also made subservient to animal subsistence; and that these are peculiarly connected with the cultivation of it. Animal food leads to the animal habits of hunting and pasturage; both of which, though pleasing as occasional employments, yet when made the character and chief pursuits of a tribe or nation, tend to animalize our nature and arrest our social progress. Ancient Scythia, and the modern Tartars and Arabs and North American Indians, are commentaries on this principle. Agriculture and gardening, and their consequential occupations, accustom the human mind to the quiet, patient, contented, domestic, social, and civilizing habits on which human happiness and improvement mainly depend. The vegetable kingdom, in its varied flowers, foliage, stems, and graceful and delicate expansions; in its playful branches and gentle movements; and in its multiplied fruits and useful products of numerous sorts and of universal application, display a peculiar goodness, liberality, and kindness in the Divine mind towards his human race-a desire to please, to interest and to amuse us with the most innocent, continual, accessible, and gratifying enjoyments. For, plants peculiarly address themselves to three of our most used senses-the taste, the smell, and the sight; while the ear is also soothed by the whispering of the branches,* and the touch by the softness of the verdant and floral foliage, and of most of the fruits. We see that the consolidated * As schoolboys, we have all felt how truly and how sweetly Theoeritus sang Αδυ' τι το ψιθύρισμα καὶ ὁ πίτυς, αἰπολε, τήνα Sweetly the whispering leaves and waving pine wood supplies us with numerous conveniences of private and public use; and from plants has arisen that most needful and comfortable of all things beyond the limits of the torrid zone-the grateful warmth and use of our domestic fires. Even in this respect we may perceive that there has been a benevolent foresight and provision specially exerted, in order that this daily comfort might continue to accrue to us, after our diffusing population should have levelled the forests which supplied the fuel. Buried in the earth just deep enough to remain unknown till wanted, that primeval vegetation which was overwhelmed and uprooted by the deluge has during its long sepulture become converted into bituminous coal, sufficient to yield us fire for all our purposes, though every wood should be consumed, and mankind last for more ages than they are likely to continue.* In this beneficial supply of a mineral so invaluable we have an instance of a great destruction directed by a prospective benevolence, to prepare and produce for a future age one of the kindest additions to human comfort. What a demonstration of the most deliberate goodness presiding amid the most awful displeasure! It is of peculiar importance to our reasoned comfort-to that happiness which we derive from our intellectual convictions that we possess, in the beauties and blessings of the vegetable creation, such universal and exuberant witnesses to us of the benignity and philanthropy of the Divine Creator. They not merely reveal his general goodness, but a real love and sympathy towards mankind-a personal kindness to us, intending to be so and acting as such, merely to please us. The flowers, fruits, and foliage, the forms, *COAL has been hitherto found most extensively in the British islands: the next in importance is near Liege. It is also in Misnia, Hungary, Silesia, Bohemia, Upper Styria, and France. It has been discovered in America in various parts, and also in China, the Birman empire, Great Tartary, and New South Wales. "It is probable that nothing is yet wanting in many other parts of the world, but knowledge, industry, wealth, and the stimulus of want, to prove that it is a far more common substance than it has hitherto appeared to be."-Dr. Macculloch, Geol. vol. ii. p. 308. Thus it is almost everywhere made and kept ready to come to human knowledge and use in each country, as soon as it shall be wanted; and if any one district does not possess it, that can be abundantly supplied by its neighbours who abound with it. Such has been the extraordinary provision made for human enjoyment, as it was foreseen it would be wanted. It is disclosed to human search, just at the times when the discovery is most serviceable. qualities, and motions of nature's verdant kingdom, in all their luxuriant diversities, have been purposely made what they are, purely to give us the pleasure they excite and the benefits they convey; for if our mere subsistence had been alone his object, we see that grass, hay, straw, acorns, and sawdust would have answered that purpose. What the savage lives upon in full strength and activity every child of man could subsist on; and be as happy as all the animated tribes appear to be. But he has not so dealt with us. We never act towards each other, in our kindest moments, with that inventive, foreseeing, and persevering benevolence which has been exerted by our Maker in the formation of his vegetable system: and this benefaction is still in all regions reproduced at every vernal and autumnal season. But not one single plant or flower could have existed, unless its qualities and products had been specially designed and resolved upon beforehand, and the needful consideration exerted, as to what variation of means and organization would occasion the specific result. Every flower we handle is an evidence to us of this particular anteceding deliberation, and therefore of the kindness to mankind which suggested it. Without the generous intention to give us pleasure, abstracted from all benefit to himself; and without the special resolution to vary and multiply it; and without the actual exertion of lavish imagination to devise the distinct form and nature; and without the previous combination and perception of the means that must be employed to bring it into being, with all its properties and effects; not a single flower, not one plant or tree, could have existed. And yet they have all been created with such an exuberance, that not only every peopled country swarms with its own beauties and benefits of this description, but heaths, and deserts, and uninhabited islands, and mountains scarcely accessible, have been made to have their peculiar and interesting vegetation, though not immediately used by man; as if it had * How little and how simple a diet would have supported human life In comfort and activity we see from this passage: A LAPLANDER will go thirty miles through swamps and rocks; take a draught of milk, sleep in his wet clothes, and rise the next morning as fresh as when he began his journey."-Everest's Journ. through Norway. Mr. E. speaks warmly of the Laplanders' high state of health and spirits; which he ascribes to their total absence of mental anxiety, to their few and simple wants, and to their hardy habits.-Ib. been foreseen that no place would be so forlorn or repulsive, but that the curiosity, or occupations, or vicissitudes of society would be at all times urging some individuals to explore it. When they do so, they see the new indications of their Creator's existence and providing care; and often transplant to their own homes and countries whatever they find useful or admire. We know that this has been done. Travellers have at various times pervaded such localities; and botanical students have been, and are, searching the farthest recesses and deepest solitudes of the world, to discover and make known to their contemporaries the yet unseen treasures of this department of the Divine creation.* Even the bleakest and most barren extremities of earthly soil, where frost, and snow, and desolation seem to have fixed their stern dominion, have been visited, and their plants examined. Linnæus found the provident liberalities in the home of ice and snow;‡ and some of our best virtues are there the companions of what we should call extreme pov *The perilous precipices and towering peaks of the Alps, the Atlas, the Ararat, the Balkan, the Andes, and the Hamalaya have been repeatedly visited for the purpose of exploring their vegetable species. Tournefort, Saussure, and Humboldt were among the earlier leaders; but a long train of followers have since emulated their spirit, labours, and scientific abilities. The deserts of Africa, the pampas and forests of South America, inhospitable Japan, and jealous China have now been traversed by the resolute activity of the ardent naturalist. Such intellectual energy confers more real honour, both on the individuals and on their nation, than any military exploits, although these may have their occasional uses or necessities. But these are always to be lamented, even when most expedient; while science, if not separated from its great Founder, enables us more and more, as Milton says of Mirth to Liberty, To live with her and live with thee In UNREPROVED pleasures free.-Allegro. + Thus even New-Shetland, towards the confines of the antarctic pole has been visited, and its vegetable state described. The account is worth remembering, as one of the simplest conditions of vegetable nature, in its earliest and humblest commencement. "The land is naked and steril, with no trace of plants. In a few places a very small moss is with difficulty discerned. A lichen, the same as those on the heights of Cape Horn, comprises, with a few marine plants, the botany of New-Shetland."-Ed. Journ. Science. I particularly allude here to the botula in the icy regions of the arctic pole, which is not less beneficial and grateful to the Laplander, than the cocoanut-tree to the South Sea islander, or the date-tree to the restless Bedouin of the arid desert. Linnæus is particularly eloquent and interesting in his description of the botula. He saw and felt its uses when he was exploring these abodes of frost and privation. |