A sudden and violent concussion of the atmosphere will frequently cause the descending cloud to burst before its union with the ascending wave, and accordingly mariners are in the habit of discharging a gun in its direction, and of thus averting the probability of the "water-spout" extending and engulphing their richly freighted and highly-valued ship.

A large, stately, firm structure it may be, in comparison with the hands by which it was fashioned, but it is a small, lowly, and frail shell, in comparison with the incomprehensibly vast and boundless flood of waters upon which it floats; it bears not so great proportion to them as the smallest grain of sand bears to the largest artificial globe; and therefore, instead of considering it as extraordinary that shipwrecks so frequently occur, we should rather feel surprise that they do not more frequently happen, and astonishment that in vessels so minute, mariners have been permitted to circumnavigate the gigantic world.

They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters;

"These see the works of The Lord and His wonders in the deep."

Thus in addition to wonderful phenomena, of constant occurrence, as storm, tempest, hurricane and wave, mariners sometimes behold with astonishment and awe, fiery volcanoes suddenly bursting forth from the depths of the ocean; these are attended by lightning, thunder, lava, steam and water-spouts, all of them so far as man is permitted to discover-being physically caused by the abrupt, violent, and extensive changes which matter is commanded to sustain by "The Creator of the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that in them is."

Changes, miraculous and perpetual, pervade throughout the creation, and yield an inexhaustible store of materials which are continually presented, withdrawn, and again renewed for mental reflection and experimental investigation.

The vital force displayed by vegetation, from the hour of its germination, and throughout all its successive periods of growth towards maturity, in obedience to the immutable laws of its Creator, is a subject well calculated to draw attention from the servant and interpreter of Nature.

In Spring, when a seed is buried in the earth, this medium, on account of the hardness and solidity of its constituent atoms, might be reasonably imagined capable of exerting such rude pressure upon the first

germs of vegetable life, as to crush it almost in the very moment of its nascence, but experience teaches us that no such injury is sustained.

When the entire organic structure is once endowed with vitality, its powers become superior to those of inorganic matter; for example, the "radicle" sends forth soft and tender filaments, yet having sufficient strength during their search of liquid nutriment, to penetrate between hard solid stones, and these filaments, in obedience to gravitation, descend beneath the earth to form a firm and steady root.

The "plumula" simultaneously sends forth delicate and fragile folds having a nearly equal though contrary strength during their search of other nutriment from the air, to part asunder and lift before them, the incumbent atoms of their terrestrial prison, and thus to emerge amidst the ethereal treasures of light and heat, under whose combined attraction, the folds burst into full leaves, a perfect plant soon flourishes, and it is destined in due season to "yield seed after its kind," which in its turn will then present the same miraculous circle of changes.

When natural or artificial obstacles of great size, solidity, or weight, are opposed to the comparatively small, slender, and light structure of plants, attraction of gravitation and attraction of cohesion, both combine to render the former of superior power to the latter; but in such cases, although the organic forces cannot directly penetrate or lift these obstacles, they preserve as closely as possible the direction that they would

have pursued, if not opposed, and will recover it at the earliest opportunity.

The endeavour of plants to remove obstacles opposed to the ordinary direction of their growth, and failing of it, then gracefully yielding obedience to them, seem to have been first remarked in the case of a basket covered with a flat, square stone, which was accidentally placed in the centre of a growing "acanthus," the leaves of which being diverted from their original position, assumed a bending beauty of form, as shown in the engraving, and from this it is said originated the elegant Corinthian capital.

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In pure Corinthian architecture the "acanthus " tirely surrounds with its aspiring leaves the "basket" or "vase" of the capital, as if attempting to raise the flat stone or abacus" that covers the whole, they then turn down and form themselves in graceful "volutes."

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It is occasionally observed that when plants cannot remove solid obstacles, they will actually enclose them

within their own structures; thus, nails and stones have been found imbedded in the trunks of trees, and some Indian nations take advantage of this fact, for the construction of their hammers; they split open the supple stem of a creeping plant, then place an oblong piece of heavy stone in the aperture, and bind it fast with the shoot of another plant of the same kind which is in a growing state; by the end of twelve months the stone is firmly interlaced, the stem which bears it is cut away, and thus a rude hammer is obtained.

But returning to the graceful form of the acanthus or other plant when diverted from its original position, it presents more than its mere outward beauty to the votary of experimental science; for example, remove the stone from the top of the basket, and then it will be seen that all the stems and leaves of the plant, which have crept through the wicker-work and have thus grown in the gloom induced by the opacity of the external foliage, are neither vigorous nor verdant like it, but sickly and pale, thus affording another example in addition to those adduced at page 93, of the modification of vegetable growth and colour when deprived of the free access of solar-light.

Even one more example of the same kind will be presented, when the languid foliage is carefully freed from its imprisonment, and the basket lifted; it might have been originally placed upon the grass, near the acanthus or other luxuriant plant, and if this were the case, no grass will be found, but only a circular spot of bare earth, where the basket stood; because it and the