ANIMAL PROPERTIES DERIVED FROM VEGETABLES.

too little is known to enable us to determine with certainty into what substances they enter.

C

We are not to suppose that all these substances are to be found in the same plant: they have been discovered in those vegetables which have been analyzed by chemists, and in various proportions in different plants.-How little do we think, when we are eating what, without a chemical knowledge of its component parts, we may suppose to be a simple uncompounded substance, that it contains properties which, when digested in the stomach, contribute to form our blood, and the vessels in which it circulates, our bones, our muscles and tendons, our skin, nails, and hair. And how great must that wisdom be which directs the un-numbered particles of these substances to their proper situations, and so connects them with each other as to produce with certainty the intended result!

The number of vegetables already known amounts to forty-four thousand: and new discoveries are constantly making. How astonishing, that so great a variety, all differing essentially from each other, and all flourishing under the rays of the same sun, and growing in the same atmosphere, should be produced from a few simple substances !

The essential principles of vegetables bear an evident relation to the structure and necessities of

ANIMALS ABLE TO MAKE A PROPER CHOICE OF FOOD.

animals. And God has wisely communicated to the vegetable economy whatever is necessary for the animal. In their most perfect state, indeed, vegetable substances, such as fruits, seeds, leaves, and whatever is fit for food, can contribute nothing to the support of animal life, until they undergo an entire decomposition, and a complete destruction of their organization in the stomach of the animal. But when that mysterious process has taken place, vegetables afford all the essential properties necessary for the support of animals. So that this relation

between the animal and vegetable kingdom is such, that an essential alteration in the one would render an equal change in the other indispensably necessary. What goodness, what intelligence, what wisdom does this discover in the Creator! He foresaw all the necessities of the animal system in its different stages of youth and maturity, and made suitable provision for every exigency. Some vegetables are suited to one class of animals, and others to another class; but they are all endowed with properties of appearance, or smell, or taste, whereby the animal, furnished also with organs adapted to these purposes, makes an infallible choice of that which is destined. for its use by the Creator, and carefully rejects what is unsuitable, and would prove destructive. The most superficial observer of nature must be struck with the design which is every where obvious. We must stop, however, till we arrive at a superior state

THE WORKS OF GOD INCOMPREHENSIBLE.

of existence before we can understand the whole scope of divine wisdom in this lower creation. Nay, it is questionable whether any created mind, at any period of its being, even the most remote, will be able to comprehend, perfectly, the minutest of the works of God. Probably no intelligence but that which is infinite can fully grasp the whole extent of wisdom as displayed in any one part of this mysterious creation.

I might have considered here the nature of the ligneous part of vegetables, their bark, and their sap; but their essential properties, when analyzed, are reducible to the substances which I have before mentioned, and therefore it would be superfluous to treat of them distinctly. We find in them a singular combination of many of the known elements, blended in various proportions, in innumerable modifications, and under the influence of different circumstances, producing a variety of shapes, qualities, and colours, which must excite wonder and delight in the mind of every attentive observer.

Having noticed the constituent principles of Vegetables, I shall now consider

THE

THE ROOTS OF VEGETABLES.

THE GENERAL STRUCTURE OF PLANTS, AND ITS SUITABLENESS TO THE PROCESS OF VEGETATION.

In this part of our subject, we shall be led to contemplate the innumerable particles of the substances already mentioned, so arranged and disposed as to constitute organs and systems of the most curious nature, and which afford an astonishing display of divine wisdom.-I begin with the Structure of Vegetables.

All plants have Roors, which penetrate the soil in which they grow, and reach to a considerable extent. These roots appear to subserve two important purposes; the one is, to give a firmness and stability to that part which appears above the ground, to which they are well suited, extending in all directions horizontally in the earth to which they adhere; so that if the plant is in danger of falling in one direction, they support it, not only as props on that side, but also by holding it fast on the opposite:-the other purpose is, to supply the plant with its necessary nutriment, which it derives principally from the vegetable stratum in which it grows; they are also well adapted to this purpose, for they are supplied with an inconceivable number of pores, which are so very small, that no gross and improper matter can enter; these pores are as so many mouths to the plant. They are connected with those small

THE ROOTS OF VEGETABLES.

vessels, which, like arteries and veins in the human body, extend through the whole vegetable system, passing through the wood, bark, and leaves; and becoming increasingly delicate the nearer they approach to the extremities, which they are destined to enlarge, by conveying to them the fluids intended for that purpose.

The sap, in passing upwards, becomes denser, and more fitted to deposit solid matter: it is modified by exposure to heat, light, and air, in the leaves; descends through the bark; in its progress produces new organized matter; and is thus, in its vernal and autumnal flow, the cause of the formation of new parts, and of the more perfect evolution of parts already formed. At the above-named seasons of the year the sap rises most vigorously, at the time the temperature is variable; and if it be supposed, that in expanding and contracting, the elastic fibres of the silver grain exercise a pressure upon the cells and tubes containing the fluid absorbed by the capillary attraction of the roots, this fluid must constantly move upwards towards the points where a supply is needed.a

From the root springs the STEM, which rises perpendicularly out of the ground, and divides itself into branches which gradually decrease in proportion

See Davy's Agricultural Chemistry.