VARIETY IN GLANDS. 4. GLANDULA, a gland. 169 We have before taken some notice of the glands of the moss-rose, and sun-dew. They are found in a great many other plants, but they are not always, as in those just mentioned, pedicellate or placed on pedicles. Often they are sessile, or sitting immediately upon the surface; and their forms are very. various. They are like little tubercles; sometimes vesicular, or in form of hollow bladders, or like minute scales; or, as in the passion-flower, resembling little cups. They are most frequently situated on the petiole, sometimes on the leaf, and sometimes between the serratures of its margin. The secretions from glands are very various and in many plants they serve for forming the sweet fluids of which bees make honey. 170 CHAPTER VI. OF THE FLOWER. We are now arrived at "the bright consummate flower," and here I use the word in its generally understood sense. There are, however, seven distinct parts in the fructification of plants, and of these the beautifully-coloured portion which, more commonly, is recognised as the flower, is scientifically named the corolla, and the leaves composing it are called petals. The four yellow leaves, for instance, of the wall-flower, the purple leaves of the gilliflower, the bell of the campanula, the snowy cup of the white convolvulus, and the sweetscented blue petals of the violet, form the corollas of those plants. This part is not essential to the fructification, for in many plants, even in many of the most stately trees, it is wanting, and yet they produce as perfect seeds as those in which it is most largely developed. Some, too, can dispense with the corolla at particular seasons, and thus the sweetest daughter of the spring, the violet, continues through the summer to produce fructifications and seeds, but has then no flower-leaves, and exhales no perfume, as though her aid were unnecessary when BEAUTY OF FLOWERS. 171 such numberless sweets are poured out from other flowers. That the COROLLA, however, serves various useful purposes in those species that do possess it, may be very true, and often these uses can be demonstrated. But I believe that much of the beautiful vesture, and of the endless variety in the forms and colours of vegetables, has been given for the express purpose of attracting the admiration of man, and exciting him to their serious contemplation. This observation indeed may be applied to every department of nature. Why, for instance, have shells such uncommon beauty of form, colours, and polish, but that the examination of them may enlarge the field of intellect? The inhabitant of the common whelk is housed as safely in its simple residence of calcareous earth, as that of the Nautilus Pompilius in a chambered palace, whose walls are like pearls and silver; and the shed of the limpet serves as well for protection, as the canopy of the haliotis which glitters with the colours of the rainbow. Why is the goldfinch more ornamented than the sparrow, since it could fly as swiftly, though its plumage were equally dusky? and why is the peacock embellished with a combination of every hue that is beautiful and brilliant, when it could pick up its grain equally well, although it wore the unassuming dress of its more humble companions of the court-yard? Thousands of other instances might be adduced, to show that a chief part of the beauty, and variety which occur in the different kingdoms of nature, have been intended for the mind of man; and no where, perhaps, is this more conspicuous than in the profusion of plants which clothe our globe, in which, No gradual bloom is wanting; from the bud With hues on hues expression cannot paint, Now what can give a more pleasing view of the benevolence of the Almighty than thus to see thẹ earth" apparelled with plants, as with a robe of imbroidered work, set with orient pearles, and garnished with great diversitie of rare and costly jewels ?” * How little given to observation and reflection must they be, who can look on such a scene, and see in it only the workings of chance, or who feel as little impressed by it as though it were. People in general, indeed, have never thought of the extent of power, and profundity of wisdom displayed in the formation of the vegetable world; but were we in imagination to conceive the existence of a being endued with ten thousand times the powers that any human mind ever possessed; and * Gerard. VEGETABLE CREATION. 173 that to such an intelligence were submitted the privilege of clothing a world with organized bodies formed after its own conceptions, how comparatively miserable, how destitute, would such a creation be! how unlike that which arose when "the evening and the morning were the third day," when " the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself after his kind: and God saw that it was good!" The bare earth, till then Brought forth the tender grass, whose verdure clad Then herbs of every leaf, that sudden flowered Her bosom smelling sweet: and these scarce blown, Rose as in dance the stately trees, and spread Their branches hung with copious fruit, or gemmed Their blossoms: with high woods the hills were crowned, Her sacred shades. In perusing this third volume of nature's book; whether we consider its successive pages, as they unfold through the period of a day, or through the recurring seasons of the revolving year, we shall find every line in each replete with entertainment and instruction. It is a volume in which is nothing |