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Show 230 PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. with difficulty distinguish the Cyclidias, the Euglenes, and the host of Naiades divisible by branches like the Lerona or Duckweed, of which they seek the shade. Other creatures inhabit receptacles where the light cannot penetrate, and an atmosphere variously composed, but differing from that which we breathe : such are the spotted Ascaris, which lives beneath the skin of the earthworm; the Leucophra, of a bright silvery color, in the interior of the shore Naiad; and a Pentastoma, which inhabits the large pulmonary cells of the rattlesnake of the tropics (B). There are animalculre in the blood of frogs and of salmon, and even, according toN ordmann, in the fluids of the eyes of fishes and in the gills of the Bleak. Thus the most hidden recesses of creation teem with life. We propose in these pages to direct our attention to the vegetable world, on the existence of which that of animals is dependent. Plants are incessantly engaged in disposing into order towards subsequent organization the raw materials of which the earth is composed : it is their office, by their vital forces or powers, to prepare those substances which, after undergoing a thousand modifications, are gradually converted to nobler purposes in the formation of nervous tissues. In directing our consideration towards the various families of plants, we shall at the same time glance at the multitude of animated beings to which they afford nutriment and protection. The carpet of flowers and of verdure spread over the naked crust of our planet is unequally woven; it is thicker where the sun rises high in the ever cloudless heavens, and thinner towards the poles, in the less happy climes where returning frosts often destroy the opening buds of spring, or the ripening fruits of autumn. Everywhere, however, man finds some plants to minister to his support and enjoyment. If new lands are formed, the organic forces are ever ready to cover the naked rock with life. Sometimes, as at an early period among the Greek Islands, volcanic forces suddenly elevate above the surface of the boiling waves a rock covered with Scorire : sometimes, by a long-continued and more tranquil series of phenomena, the collective labors of united Lithophytes (7) raise their cellular dwellings on the crusts of submarine mountains, until, after thousands of years, the structure reaches the level of the ocean, when the creatures which have formed it die, leaving a low flat coral |
