eneral account, and can
only myself give so much, on reflection, as that it is crisp and close in
texture, and always contains some kind of oil or milk.

35. Again, suppose the arrangement of plants could, with respect to their
flowers and fruits, be made approximately complete, they must instantly be
broken and reformed by comparison of their stems and leaves. The three
_creeping_ families of the Charites,--Rosa, Rubra, and Fragaria,--must then
be frankly separated from the elastic Persica and knotty Pomum; of which
one wild and lovely species, the hawthorn, is no less notable for the
massive accumulation of wood in the stubborn stem of it, than the wild rose
for her lovely power of wreathing her garlands at pleasure wherever they
are {203} fairest, the stem following them and sustaining, where they will.

36. Thus, as we examine successively each part of any plant, new
sisterhoods, and unthought-of fellowships, will be found between the most
distant orders; and ravines of unexpected separation open between those
otherwise closely allied. Few botanical characters are more definite than
the leaf structure illustrated in Plate VI., which has given to one group
of the Drosidae the descriptive name of Ensatae, (see above, Chapter IX., Sec.
11,) but this conformation would not be wisely permitted to interfere in
the least with the arrangement founded on the much more decisive floral
aspects of the Iris and Lily. So, in the fifth volume of 'Modern Painters,'
the sword-like, or rather rapier-like, leaves of the pine are opposed, for
the sake of more vivid realization, to the shield-like leaves of the
greater number of inland trees; but it would be absurd to allow this
difference any share in botanical arrangement,--else we should find
ourselves thrown into sudden discomfiture by the wide-waving and opening
foliage of the palms and ferns.

37. But through all the defeats by which insolent endeavors to sum the
orders of Creation must be reproved, and in the midst of the successes by
which patient insight will be surprised, the fact of the _confirmation_ of
species in plants and animals must remain always a miraculous one. What
outstretched sign of constant Omnipotence can be more awful, than that the
susceptibility to {204} external influences, with the reciprocal power of
transformation, in the organs of the plant; and the infinite powers of
moral training and mental conception over the nativity of animals, should
be so restr