The Potter journal. [volume] (Coudersport, Pa.) 1857-1872, 1859-12-08

clothes the earth with beauty, to please
the eye and to feast the tastes, in order to
induce us to enter the Temple of Science
where are stored unfathomable treasures
OF knowledge. a.#s
Let us notice briefly, the beauty, order,
arrangement of parts, and adaptation Of
means to ends, as seen in the Creators
works. God loves beauty, and be has
implanted the same love in his intelligent
creatur s. He clothes the earth with
vegetation, not only to satisfy their ami
NAL wants, but also to minister to their
higher intellectual desires; and the beau
ty and charms of Nature, are scarcely less
peedful to their highest enjoyment as
spiritual beings, than are the fruits of the
earth to their physical existence Let US
look, first, at the provisions which God
has devised for clothing the earth with
vegetable beauty. The mind does not
love sameuess aud uniformity, and hence
the Creator has provided an almost inf
mite variety of plants and trees, to crafty
this love of diversity. There are no two
species of plants, or even two individuals
of the same species, which are exactly
alike, but they all differ with each other,
in color, shade, or mixtures of color, or
in form, size or arrangements of parts, so
as to furnish an almost infinite variety of
separate and distinct objects for the eye
to behold, and the mind to contemplate.
Look al the means he has devised for the
propagation Of plants, by which to per-
petuate yerdure and beauty When he
formed the grass and the tree, he ordain.
ed that they should each bring forth seed
after its kind, that no plant or tree might
be wholly lost or destroyed. What an
abundance of seeds each plant produces;
which shows how much God loves beauty,
and how ready he is to crafty this love
in his creatures. Notice, too, the pro-
visions he has made for the dissemination
of the seed. The seed of the maple is
provided with sanadra or wing-like ap-
pendagc, by which it is blown by the
wind to distance The dandelion, the
thistle, the milk-weed, the garden lettuce.
and many other plants, produce seeds
having parachute, By which they are
borne by the wind to distant parts, Ger
hill and dale, and scattered far and wide
The seeds of the berry are imbedded in
juicy pulp, which furnishes food for birds
and animals, and by them are distributed.
The burdock, the hound 's-tongue and the
tickseed, produce fruit, or capsules pro.
vided with awns or hooked prickes
which catch upon every moving object
that touches them, and thus they are
borne away to be deposited in fresh soils
The mechanism of the touch me.not is
most wonderful. Its capsules are fur
nished with several strips or longitudinal
bands, which serve both as a covering for
the seed, and as a means for their dissem
iuation. When the seeds are fully ripe,
these bands or strips have constant ten
dency to COLI spirals, so that the least
pressure, or touch upon one of them, dis-
turbs the equilibrium of pressure sustain
ed by the others, when they instantly col
lapse, and scatter the seed in every di.
rection.
In no work of art do we more plainly
see the proofs of design than we do in tie
means which God has devised for cloth
ing the earth with verdure The lCco-
motive displays great ingenuity and skill
in its contriyance and construction, but
it is an awkward and clumsy affair after
all. With intelligence to direct, it can
do some things very well but the little
touch-me not may defy human ingenuity
to contrive better apparatus than it pos
sesses, for the sowing of its seed. The
watch is very ingenious piece of work
manship, and can be made to keep very
good time but there is nothing in the
works of art. which is So beautifully adapt
ed to the end it subserves, as the little
parachute Of the dandelion and the thistle.
Men paint their houses to improve their
looks, and ornament them with carved
work and mouldings to contrast with naked
corners; they hang up pictures in vacant
spaces to give beauty to their dwellings
But when God would conceal ANYTHING
offensive to the eye, as a barren knoll, a
rock or a stone, in this his earthly habi-
tation; he covers it over with moss and
verdurc of many form and hue. The
little invisible moss-spores, flying through
the air, are caught by the rain drops and
brought down to the earth. One of these
little seeds falls upon rock and yeget-
ates, forming little plant, no larger than
tho head of a pin, and resembling black
speck or stain Of some colored fluid. The
sun scorches and kills it, but it still ad-
heres firmly to the rock, making an ex-
tremely thin soil for the growth of anoth-
er moss-spore of larger species. Anoth-
sr rain brings down other seeds, which
fall upon the prepared soil and germiu-
ates, and dying leave another layer of
earth and so one after abother layer is