long for those earthly pleasures which are gone to return no more, but may have already anticipated in hope the reality it shall then experience. The wise of old, though but dimly perceiving what is assured to us under the pledge and seal of God himself, could yet draw the right inference from those dim perceptions. When in the varied phases of the butterfly's frail life they saw prefigured their own future destiny, they could urge their disciples to purify the soul, and fit it for companionship with eternal Love. In the grain of wheat apparently perishing in the earth, but springing up in due season in a form "the same, and yet another," the Apostle found a similar correspondence with our lot: all can see the appropriateness and beauty of the comparison; may all likewise take to heart the Apostle's argument, and having this hope, may they continue "steadfast and immovable" in all that is good, knowing beyond all doubt or cavil, that their labor shall not be in vain. APPENDIX A. THE subject of local circulations has been so clearly handled by Professor Henslow, and is in itself so important a physiological fact, that no apology is necessary for transferring his account of the matter to these pages, which is here done in a somewhat abridged form. "In the ascent, descent, and general transfusion of the sap, we can trace the operation of physical causes modifying and controlling to a considerable extent, if, indeed, they do not originate and entirely regulate those movements. We have now to describe a more remarkable movement of the juices of some plants, which more decidedly evinces a vital action. This movement consists in a constant rotation of the fluid contained in their vesicles or tubes, and rendered apparent by the presence of minute globules of vegetable matter floating in it. The original discovery of this phenomenon was made about a century ago by Corti, who first observed it in the Caulinia fragilis, a maritime plant found on the shores of Italy. His observations appear to have been generally neglected until lately, when the re-discovery of the phenomenon in other plants has excited the attention of botanists . . . . We shall explain the phenomenon as it may be seen in the Chara with a lens of about the tenth of an inch focal distance, or even of less power." "In the genus Nitella" (a section of the Chara, and which is to be preferred to the true Chara, from the superior transparency of its tubes) "the stems consist of single, jointed tubes. At the joints of the stem are whorls of branches, composed also of short tubes, in each of which the same rotation of the contained fluid may be seen. If an entire tube occupying the space between two joints, be placed under the microscope, its inner surface appears to be studded with minute green granules, arranged in lines, which wind in a spiral direction from one extremity to the other. They are studded over the whole of the interior, with the exception of two narrow spaces on opposite sides of the tube, forming two spiral lines from end to end. The globules of transparent gelatinous matter dispersed through the fluid are in constant motion, being directed by a current_up one side of the tube, and back again by the other. The course of this current is regulated by the spiral arrangement of the granules, and it moves in opposite directions, on contrary sides of the clear spaces on the minor surface of the tube. The rotation continues in a detached portion, for several days; and if the tube is tied at intervals between the joints, the fluid between two ligaments still continues to circulate, even though the extremities of the tube should be cut away. The motion here described is precisely similar to what takes place in the tubes of Corallines, and must unquestionably be considered as the result of a vital action." Although the circulation in the laticiferous vessels is denied by many of the most distinguished physiologists, yet the subject is so curious, and so well worthy of farther investigation, that it is deemed advisable to add the account of it also in Prof. Henslow's words. "It was in the year 1820, that a distinguished naturalist, M. Schultes, first announced his discovery of a peculiar movement in the juices of plants, which more nearly resembles the circulation of the blood in animals than anything which had formerly been observed. The liquid, whose movement is described, and which M. Schultes terms the 'latex,' is sometimes transparent and colorless, but in many cases opaque, and either milk-white, yellow, red, orange, or brown. . This liquid is considered to be the proper juice of the plant, secreted from the crude sap in the intercellular passages, and consequently analogous to the blood of animals, as was long since suggested by Grew; who further likened the lymphatic, or crude sap, to their chyle. It is contained in delicate transparent membranous tubes, which become cylindrical when isolated, but when pressed together in bundles, assume a polygonal shape. The movement of the latex can be witnessed only in those parts which happen to be very transparent, and it has not been actually seen in many plants. The Ficus elastica, Chelidonium majus, and Alisma plantago, are the species upon which most of the observations hitherto recorded have been made. Distinct currents are observed traversing the vital vessels, and passing through the lateral connecting tubes or branches, into the principal channels. These currents follow no one determinate course, but are very inconstant in their direction, some proceeding up, and others down, some to the right and others to the left; the motion occasionally stopping suddenly, and then recommencing. . . . The effect does not seem to depend upon a contractile power of the tubes, because the latex flows chiefly or entirely from one end of a tube, even when it has an orifice open at both extremities. The appearance is especially analogous to the circulation of some of the lowest tribes of animals, as in the Diplozoon paradoxum, which may be divided into two parts, and the blood will con |