give us, if we seek for it in the proper spirit, and with due diligence; and at the present time, our gardens bear beautiful testimony to the return which distant lands have made to us, for carrying thither the blessings of civilization and religion. And not our gardens merely, but our food, our clothing, our furniture, and every class of our comforts; for, enter any house in which there is only a moderate degree of what we call comfort, and separate those articles which are the productions of other lands from those of our own, and you will find that in every case they amount to a very large proportion.

The lesson goes a little farther than this: man is adapted to more changes of climate and situation than any other living creature; and this verifies the original gift by the Almighty to man, of the whole earth and all its productions for his use. Not only this, but it informs us, in language not to be mistaken, that mankind are one brotherhood; and that if a nation be in want, or sit in the darkness of ignorance, or in want of the Divine truth, those who possess these blessings, and do not communicate them to such a nation, are as guilty of uncharitableness in the sight of the Father of all, as an individual would be, who withheld the same from a neighbour or a brother.

As we proceed from the equator toward the north pole, the tropical causes, and tropical character of the Spring, gradually diminish, and a portion of the polar ones begin to display themselves. The alternation of snow, and its absence upon the lofty mountains, extends over a larger range, and the snow continues for

a longer period of the year; so that, when we come to about the latitude of Britain, the Spring on high mountains is polar; and the year consists but of one period of snow, and another of its absence.

This produces a very remarkable difference in the character of the mountain vegetation from that under and near the equator. There, we mentioned that the plants are remarkable for their obedience to the hand of the cultivator, and their improvement under the exercise of his skill. Here, on the other hand, they are remarkable for their stubbornness; for while the mountain-plants of tropical America will grow well, with little attention, if the proper season for them is chosen, the alpine plants of Europe require the most attention; and many of those of our own mountains, none of which can be said to be clad with neverthawing snows, stubbornly resist every effort of the most skilful and laborious gardener. It is the same with polar plants; for they can, with extreme difficulty, be kept alive in good soils and warm situations, and few of them can be so kept alive at all. The reason is obvious: in the alpine or the polar region the long Winter is but one; and when the snow is melted, the frost is over for the season; whereas, on the low lands of temperate countries, and especially of those which have little or no snow to protect the vegetation during the winter, the tender bud has to endure a long protracted contest of the two great opposing seasons of the year. From the shortness of the polar Summer, and also of the alpine Summer, in consequence of the advanced heat of the season requisite to

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melt the snow, the bud, in such places, springs at once, and vigorously, and when a frost comes upon it it withers, and the plant is at an end; whereas the native vegetation of such places is tempered to what it has to endure, and as its Spring begins earlier in the year, it can come to maturity with a much slower progress at the beginning.

We have some striking instances of this in the case of the same plant, provided that it is a cultivated one, and has been cultivated so long as to have acquired that artificial character which belongs to all such plants. Barley, for instance, requires two or three weeks or even a month less between the sowing and the reaping, in the very northmost parts of Europe where it will grow, than it does in the south of England. There is a wonderful goodness to man even in this circumstance, trifling as it may seem. If the grain were to require as long time to ripen in the extreme north, as it does in the mild latitudes, the frost, and even the snow, would come upon it and kill it, while the seeds were yet but a milky juice and the straw unripened, and it would be unfit for the food either of man or beast. The same holds, to a certain extent, in the case of every plant which has been long cultivated; though different plants are, of course, susceptible of cultivation in different latitudes, and over different ranges of latitude. The more useful domestic animals possess a similar property of adapting themselves, by degrees, to great differences of climate; and the whole of living and growing nature is so finely adapted to man, that enough for every necessary

purpose of life can be carried along with him, and reared in every part of the world. The polar portion of the Spring increases toward the poles themselves, till, at them, it becomes the general character of the season, as we have already described it.

CHAPTER V.

ADAPTATION AND PREPARING OF THE VEGETABLE

KINGDOM FOR THE SPRING.

THE adaptation of the vegetable tribes to their native places on the surface of the earth, and the preparations which are made for their receiving the full benefit of the Spring revival, when it comes and as it comes, are among the most beautiful and the most striking displays of Divine contrivance with which we meet in the whole economy of this delightful season. One can hardly, even in the slightest manner, contemplate these without feeling that verily there is a God that liveth, and that ruleth and judgeth on the earth.

As in every operation of nature there are always two natural parties concerned-an agent and an object— no natural operation could take place unless these were adapted to each other. But every natural object takes place in the very best manner, namely, with perfection and perfect economy. From this consideration alone we are led to conclude, that the adaptation is perfect in every case which is truly natural; and it is this which renders nature so excellent a pattern to us, in endeavouring to make our small workings as perfect as

we can.