A few words on the structure of a leaf, and we will advert to an exquisite contrivance in the formation of those of the Nymphæa. The sap on reaching the leaf is taken into the upper tier of veins, and after being diffused through the lamina, is transformed to a state which renders it fit nutriment for the plant, when it is conducted back by the under tier of veins, and imparts nourishment as it passes downward. The lamina in which it is thus changed by the effect of light and heat, and which are the organs of digestion, are in two divisions, the upper and lower, both of them consisting of cylindrical bladders. The bladders of the upper lamina are arranged perpendicularly, so as to present the least surface to the sun, whose action would otherwise produce too rapid an evaporation. The bladders of the under lamina, being protected by their situation from the too powerful effect of the sun, are placed nearly parallel to the under surface, but diverging to such a degree as to leave large cavities between them, communicating with each other. The upper side then, on account of its compact structure, affords but little room for the air, while the under, being cavernous, is rendered very fit for an organ of respiration. Both divisions of the lamina are covered by the cuticle, or the skin of the leaf. This cuticle is composed of small air bladders, pierced with stomates, or breathing pores, and communicating with the laminæ. But from its conformation the under lamina gives more room for the admission of the air: we find, conse quently, that here respiration is carried on to the greatest extent, the under surface of the cuticle being provided with many more stomates, or pores, than the upper. Air being positively necessary to the existence of a plant, we see here an arrangement in its anatomy, for the best performance of the function of respiration, which conflicts with no other part of the structure, and which, though minute and delicate, is as perfect and wonderful as that in the human frame.

There are many vegetables, however, whose leaves float on the water, and among them is the Nymphæa. Were its organs of respiration on the under surface of the leaf, they would certainly have little opportunity of inhaling air, and death as certainly ensue. The bladder of the upper lamina, therefore, instead of being perpendicular, are nearly parallel, have all the breathing pores, and perform solely the office of the lungs, while the leaves' floating on the water obviates any bad influence which might proceed from too rapid an evaporation. The other parts of the Nymphæa conform too much to the general vegetable organization, to make them a matter of peculiar interest. habit of closing its flowers at night, and thus securing them from cold and injury, though a curious instance of care and foresight, we have as yet been unable to trace to any manifest cause. The apparatus by which this singular phenomenon is effected, is either of so microscopic or subtle a character, as to have eluded all examination. Yet we can admire its effect, though ignorant of its origin. The wayfarer, as he stopped to listen to the music of Memnon, trembled with mingled admiration and awe, though he knew not whence its melody came. Thus when we look on the flower

'which expands its lucid form, To meet the sun, and shuts it to the storm,'

Its

we can recur with delight to the benign power which provides for its safety, without our knowing by what mechanism this beautiful purpose has been effected.

The same tender care, the same exquisite fashioning, the same graceful fitness, and dexterous adjustment, pervade the smallest plant as well as the shrub or the kingly trees of the forest. We trace the designing hand of the Creator in the giant Macrosystis swimming on the ocean, the more delicate Algae which cling to its side, and through every gradation of vegetation, till we reach the lichen

-'which climbs the topmost stone, And drinks the aërial solitude alone.'

Greatness is measured by extension and ubiquity, as well as power. When we rise, then, from observing the anatomy of the little flower we have so often trodden carelessly under foot, and perceive these clear evidences of supervision, and an attention bestowed on its fabrication. equal to that which presides over the largest bodies of the universe, we are impressed with the deepest sense of the all-pervading care, the intelligence, and real grandeur of the Deity. We know that not a leaf falls nor a flower blooms, but in accordance with his designs, and as the result of the action of some minute machinery, whose laws he has regulated. We have even penetrated into the action of this little machine, and understand how it proceeds. The knowledge increases our wonder and our veneration. Thus in the smallest of his works he gives the best mirror of the expansion of his power and presence, and in the color which adorns a petal, or in the perfume which rises from a blossom, receives as high a testimony of his nature as in the stupendous system of worlds he moves in harmony above.

On the Papyrus was once written nearly all that was estimable in knowledge. But the plant which bore these records had engraven in its own conformation more precious truths. While there were daily written on its surface disquisitions on the nature of the gods, the secret was contained in its own mechanism. Il est,' says an illustrious Frenchman, un livre ouvert à tous les yeux-c'est celui de la nature. C'est dans ce grand et sublime livre que j'apprends à servir et à adorer sou divini Auteur. Nul n'est excusable de n'y pas lire, parce q'uil parle à tous les hommes une langue intelligible à tous les esprits. Such a book is indeed a fit record from which to gather a knowledge of the attributes of its author. When in geology we can peruse the history of our earth and its mighty revolutions when from chemistry we can draw all the principles which acted in the formation, and still regulate the condition of the material world when in vegetable and animal physiology we can perceive the faultless machinery by which life and its mysteries are governed - and when from the celestial system we can derive some faint idea of the magnitude, the expansive greatness of HIS power, and forsee the destruction of our globe in the arms of the sun; when we can thus read from God's book the past and the future, his character, his power, his wisdom, and his goodness our own humble

ness and his immense superiority we feel that to him it is a noble and worthy way thus to disclose himself, and to us a glorious privilege thus to read. A privilege, however, which is commensurate with the correct use of our reason and advancement in knowledge, to which ignorance is death, and sophistry a baneful poison; which, as it receives life at the fount of science, beckons us onward in our search for truth, and in our inquiries into the laws of nature, promising as a reward not merely power, but moral and intellectual elevation.

A.

IT has seldom happened, at least within the last half century, that a man who in early life was deprived of the advantages of a liberal education, who was destitute of friends possessing the ability to pave the way for his introduction into the circles of the literati, or to initiate him into the mysteries of the temple of science, has been able by the force of his genius, combined with the most unwearied perseverance, to surmount the difficulties attendant on his early disadvantages, and while yet in the prime of his life, to behold his name enrolled high in the catalogue of naturalists, to see it incorporated into the literature of the age, and to hear his productions quoted as decisive authority, on the subjects to which they relate but such has been and still is the case with Prof. Hitchcock. We too, have read many of his works with unmingled pleasure, and we consider his Sketch of the Geology, Mineralogy, and Scenery of the Regions contiguous to the River Connecticut, with occasional Botanical notices, read before the American Geological Society, Sept. 11, 1822,' as a paper evincing much ability and research; and his Report on the Geology, Mineralogy, Botany, and Zoology of Massachusetts,' as a dépôt of valuable matter, collected generally with great care, and mostly arranged with judgment, both of which we have classified with the important works of the English and continental Geologists. Nor ought we to omit to mention several memoirs which have lately appeared in the Biblical Repository and Quarterly Observer, on the connexion between Geology and Natural Religion,' and 'on the connexion between Geology and the Mosaic History of the Creation,' by the same author, in which he has most triumphantly repelled the charge of heresy, so often and pertinaciously urged against that class of Naturalists."

เ

*'ORNITHICHNOLOGY: Description of the foot marks of Birds, (Ornithichnites) on new red sand stone in Massachusetts. By Prof. EDWARD HITCHCOCK, of Amherst College.'

But with all this respect and reverence for our author, the man whom we delight to praise, truth and justice require us to say, that we have somewhat against him - which we declare with the more freedom, since the eminence already gained by the Professor is demonstration that he requires no critical dandling; and the fact that his writings compose a part of our national literature, has made it our duty to make known our sentiments on these subjects.

Our objections against the Professor are two fold; first, the enthusiasm which forms so large a portion of his composition in this particular(as it ever must in the character of every real lover of science, and which he has so well described in his review of Cordier, Scrope, and D'Aubeny in the North American Review, No. 63,) is not at all times sufficiently checked, by which he is led to mistake the imaginings of a prolific fancy for the conclusions drawn from facts; and second, he seems to be affected, somewhat, with the scribendi cacoethes, evidences of which are rife in the memoir, the title of which stands at the head of this article, published in the American Journal of Science, vol. 29. We have seen occasional evidences of exaggeration in some of his former works, but we have set them to the account of a pardonable enthusiasm, but never until the appearance of his Ornithichnology, do we recollect to have seen conclusions in any natural science which were so altogether unsupported by the premises.

The principle facts on which this new science is based, are simply these: Impressions of a singular character were found in the new red sand stone, at Greenfield, Deerfield, Montague, South Hadley, and other places, which attracted the attention of the more curious, and were finally brought to the notice of Professor Hitchcock. In them he discovered, as he imagined, resemblances to the tracks of birds, and immediately set about a thorough investigation, which resulted in the discovery of numerous prints of a similar kind, varying in size from one inch to seventeen inches in length, and often following each other in a similar order, at about the same distance. From these tracks or prints, the Professor has inferred the existence of two orders of birds, which he denominates Pachydatyli, or thick-toed, and Leptodactyli, or slendertoed, in both of which he supposes he has discerned seven well characterized species, and three doubtful ones. From these facts, he thinks it impossible to doubt, that these tracks resulted from the continuous steps of some animal. The number of the toes seem, however, to have been as various as their size, for the O. giganteus had only two; while the O. diversus reckoned three, and the O. palmatus, four.

Thus far we are within the bounds of possibility, and were there no other facts in the case, we should not arraign the conclusions of the Professor as unauthorized.

But there are many facts, some of them detailed by the Professor himself, which render his inferences liable to suspicion. Some of these we shall enumerate.

1. These foot marks are found several hundred feet deep in the rock.' (American Journal of Science and Arts, vol. 29, p. 334.)

2. The sand and mud which filled the original track are more firmly concreted than the rock generally.' (p. 311.)

3. The silicious concretion, which fills the cavity made by the foot, differs somewhat from the surrounding rock.' (p. 318.)

4. The impression is much sooner lost in descending than in ascending from the layer where it is most perfect.' (p. 311.)

5. The curve caused by the impression often passes obliquely through the layers of the rock.' (p. 335.)

6. These tracks, if made at all, were made by Grallac, some of whose legs were covered with bristles to the toes, and that beneath the water, (pp. 328, 336,) while all the waders of the present day have naked legs.

7. The plates accompanying the article on Ornithichnology 'do not present the appearance of any one specimen; but a connected view of the results obtained by an examination of all that have come under the author's notice.' (p. 326.)

8. These tracks are not always in succession. Different species of animals, and different individuals have crossed one another's tracks so often, that all is confusion.' (p. 313.)

We have then, from the article itself, the following objections against the supposed formation of these tracks, by pre-Adamitic birds, viz. the immense depth of rock in which they occur the fact that the cavity is filled with a silicious concretion, differing in hardness and in the quality of the materials of which it is composed, from the rock which surrounds it that the impression extends up as well as down, often passing obliquely through the rock. To this it may be added, that no argument can be drawn from the plates, for reasons stated in one of the foregoing quotations.

These objections are, in our opinion, decisive against the Professor's hypothesis; but we will add a few other facts, from our own observation, which we consider conclusive on the subject.

The new red sand stone in the Conneticut Valley contains innumerable septaria and stria, often mistaken for impressions presenting the most fantastic figures and shape, of which the Ornithichnites of the Professor probably compose one family, the gigantic Gorgonia of eighteen feet by ten of his Geolog. Rep. Mass. (p. 237,) another, and in the very beautiful impressions of plants, we once supposed we had found a third. The regularity and precision of many of these channels and ridges, is truly remarkable; but the accurate test of Mr. Witham has never yet been able to detect any evidence of organized matter, and in the opinion of many of our ablest geologists there is none. Again, appearances precisely similar in character to those described by Professor Hitchcock occur in many of the clay beds in the same valley, the cavities being filled with septaria, or silicious concretions, differing in hardness and in the quality of the materials of which it is composed, from the layers of clay that surround it.

While on the subject of extravagancies, we will mention another, in which the Professor has rather fallen in with an old notion, than broached a new hypothesis, but which in our opinion is no less absurd, than that of the Ornithichnites. We allude to the supposition, that Mount Tom and Mount Holyoke were once united, and that the pass between them has been excavated by the waters of the Connecticut, or by the currents of a primitive lake. (Geolog. Rep. Mass., p. 79.)

To a person acquainted with the topography of that region, it will be unnecessary to premise, that the waters of the river would have passed around either end of the mountain, before it reached within