The parasitical epidendrum monile a lives years with only the imbibings of rain and dew. It does not fasten its roots in the ground; and is, therefore, frequently hung upon pegs. Some plants of the desert have been taken up, and kept without moisture even for three years; and yet have vegetated". The phoke of the Caubul deserts has flowers, but no leaves; its branches are green, and run into twigs, terminating in branches, soft and full of sap. Camels are partial to it. с g e It is remarkable, that in Asia and Africa, where grass will not grow, the most beautiful flowers and shrubs flourish luxuriantly. In Australia, where vegetable and mineral productions run in veins. nearly north and south, timber degenerates as the land improves; and the most nourishing of all vegetables in the range of the Arctic circle grows best in sterile places. The "King of Candia f" has red clusters of flowers, which grow close to the ground. Before these clusters unfold, the leaves wither, and do not renew till the fruit falls. In all countries where the champaka grows, its colour is yellow; except in Sumatra, where it is blue. This exception is so remarkable, that the Bramins believe that it once grew in Paradise. On the banks of the Ganges, near Hurdwar, is a grass ", which, when trampled upon, diffuses a grateful perfume; and in the territory of Istakhar there is said to be an apple, one half of which is sour, and the other sweet. These instances are very remarkable; but in the olive and potatoe are peculiarities still more curious. The olive is propagated by cuttings, and by procuring wild plants from the woods; and it will not grow from the seed, unless it first passes through the intestines of some bird, which divests it of those oily particles, which prevent water penetrating it and causing the kernel to expand. The same effect may, pro h с * Thunberg, vol. iii. p. 212. b Ibid. vol. iv. 269. Elphinstone, p. 4, 4to. f Hoemanthus coccineus. bably, be produced by macerating the seed in an alkaline lixivium. In respect to the potatoe, what can be more curious in fecundation, than the circumstance, that when this plant is propagated by cuttings, those cuttings will produce roots of the same quality; but when it is propagated by seed, scarcely two roots resemble each other in form, in size, colour, or flavour. In animated beings, too, it is not incurious to remark one or two of those peculiarities, which exemplify the boundless variety of Nature. The eggs of poultry, near Oojain in the Mahratta states, frequently contain two yolks : their bones, too, are black; while in Europe they are white, and in Malabar red. In London may, at this moment, be seen a redbreast with red eyes, yellow bill and legs, white feathers, and white claws. The species of colymbus, known in Sweden by the name of the lomma, has feet; but as they are turned towards the tail", it is unable to walk. In the genus lytta, the Spanish female fly courts the male; and usurps the station in fecundation, which, in other animals, is taken by the male. This is, I believe, the only instance of the kind, that has yet been observed in natural economy. In minerals many anomalies and resemblances have, also, been observed and as an analogy between vegetables and minerals is indicated by some remarkable coincidences, observable in the effects of metallic and vegetable galvanic batteries, future experience will probably account for those peculiarities, which at present baffle the subtlety of the human mind. How many species of sensation Nature has created, it were impossible even to conjecture: but, by all the rules of analogy, it is evident that there are at least two; the vegetable, and the animal. These species are subdivided into orders; each of which are experienced in regular gradation, according to the body to which it belongs. Some extend sensation even to minerals; and, according to them, earths have a less b Scheffer de Avibus, 349. c Proved by Baronio of Naples. * Clarke, Scandinavia, 310. perfect sensation than bitumen and sulphur; these yield to metals; metals to vitriols; vitriols to lower salts; these to lower species of crystallizations; and those to what are called stones. The mineral is connected to the vegetable world by the amianthes and lytophites. Here a new species of sensation begins; a sensation partaking of the united qualities of mineral and vegetable; having the former in a much greater degree than the latter. Vegetable is more acute than mineral sensation; therefore more delicate. Its degrees and qualities aspire, in regular order, from the root to the moving plant. The polypus unites plants to insects; the tube-worm seems to connect insects with shells and reptiles; the sea-eel and the water-serpent connect reptiles with fishes; the flying-fish form the link between fishes and birds; bats associate quadrupeds with birds; and the various gradations of monkeys and apes fill up the space between quadrupeds and men. CHARACTERS AND HABITS OF ANIMALS. Ir is curious, also, to observe the analogies of animals, in respect to their construction, capabilities, manners, and habits. Let us allude to a few of them. Wild horses live in communities, consisting of from ten to twenty, in the deserts of Western Tartary, and in the southern regions of Siberia. Each community is governed by a chief. The females bring forth one at a birth; which, if a male, is chased from the herd, when he arrives at maturity; and then he wanders about till he has assembled a few mares, to establish an empire of his own. While feeding, or sleeping, the tribe place a sentinel, who is ever on the watch; and who, on all occasions for alarm, gives signals by neighing; on hearing which the whole party set off with a speed equal to that of the wind. Wild asses congregate in the same manner. Antelopes associate in bodies, frequently to the number of three thousand. The wild lamas of the Cordilleras herd, also, in large flocks; and appoint sentinels, who stand upon the summit of a precipice. In their habits they bear a great affinity with antelopes. The Arctic walrus sleeps with a herd, consisting of many hundreds, on the islands of ice along the coast of Spitzbergen, and Nova Zembla, Hudson's Bay, the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and the Icy Sea. Ursine seals, too, are gregarious: each family consisting of from ten to fifty females, besides their young; commanded by the father, who exercises despotic authority. Violet crabs live in communities among the mountains of the Carribee islands; whence they emigrate, in immense bodies, every year, to the sea shore, in order to deposit their eggs. Green turtles, too, are gregarious. On shore they prefer the mangrove and the black-wood tree but in the sea they feed upon weeds, as land animals do upon grass. When the sun shines, they are seen, many fathoms deep, feeding in flocks, like deer. Bees, wasps, and ants, congregate together in a manner still more wonderful. In some animals we observe a propensity to hoard, for the satisfaction of the next day's appetite: in others for the entire winter's supply. This useful instinct is possessed by the beaver; the striped dormouse; the earless marmot; and the Alpine mole. Some birds have the same foresight; as the nuthatch and the tanager of the Mississippi: the former hoarding nuts, the latter maize. Some animals there are, which take pleasure in hoarding what can never be of use to them; as the raven, the jackdaw, the magpie, and the nut-cracker of Lorraine. Some quadrupeds assimilate in the custom of sleeping by day, and being active by night; as the Egyptian jerboa; the wandering mouse; the hedge-hog; the six-banded armadillo; the great ant-eater; the tapir; the Brazilian porcupine; the flying squirrel of North and South America; and the hippopotamus of the Nile and the Niger. This curious propensity is observed, also, among some birds, insects, and fishes; as the owl, the finch of Hudson's Bay, the white-throat, the goat-sucker, the eel, the turtle, and the moth. With these we may associate those flowers, which expand their blossoms during the evening and the night; as the Pomeridian pink; nocturnal catchfly; several species of moss; the nightshade of Peru; the nightingale flower of the Cape; the cereus grandiflorus; and the tree of melancholy, growing in the Moluccas: the numerous family of the confervæ; charas; many kinds of ranunculi; and almost every species of aquatic plant. The Triste geranium, also, (first brought into this country in 1632), has little or no scent in the middle of the day; but in the night it sheds an exquisite perfume. Many beautiful flowers have no scent; many beautiful birds have no song; and many animals of symmetrical shapes are of no use to mankind. Some plants will exist for months without water; serpents are equally abstinent; and sloths will live forty days without any description of food. Analogies may be traced even in contrasts. Thus the most medicinal roots, the best gums, and the most odoriferous spices, are from countries producing the most destructive of animals as the condor, the dodo, the cassowary; alligators, crocodiles, and serpents; leopards, panthers, tigers, locusts, land-crabs, and rattlesnakes. Few animals require habitations; they being sufficiently protected by their wool, hair, or scales. The soldier-crab, however, clothes himself in the discarded shell of a lobster. On the banks of the Congo, the African ants erect mushroomlike habitations, sometimes forming whole villages. Beavers show more intellect, in respect to their securities, than any other animal and not only build in a manner more consonant with reason, than the savage by whom they are pursued from one rivulet to another, but are more than equal to him in providing against the intensity of cold and the vicissitudes of want. The huts of New Caledonia were nothing |