I've thought that He who sent a bird
  To give the Prophet food,
Through you sent many a gentle thought,
  To do my spirit good.

I would not take you hence, robins,
  To cage you in a room;
I dread too much the city streets,
  To shroud you in their gloom.
But when the winter violets
  Spring 'neath your nesting tree,
You've seen me gather them so oft,
  Perchance you'll think of me.

I wish I knew who next, robins,
  Shall tend these gardens fair;
And who of you, our pretty birds,
  Hereafter shall take care.
I like to fancy little steps,
  Amid the bowers, and fain
Would love the child who in their shade
  Shall dream my dreams again.

Goodbye then, once for all, robins,
  Where'er our lives we spend,
We know they're folded in the hand
  Of ONE, our common friend.
Yet shall this old home o'er us throw
  Its radiance to the last,
Inlaying as with jewels pure,
  The present with the past.

PLANT ARCHITECTURE.

A HAPPY thought of Goethe has led to
the discovery that in a plant of the highest
form of organisation and the most perfect
development, flower and fruit are but the
repetition of the foliage. The leaf is
the Proteus which, in its power of assuming
a varying series of shapes, climbs upward
on the stem in a constant progression of
form until reaching the apex it combines
with other leaves to produce both fruit and
flower, accomplishing the renewal of vegetable
life. Both fruit and flower may be resolved
into whorls of leaves, differing, indeed, from
those which constitute the verdant mass of
foliage, but only in degree and not in kind; so
that a constant ascension is perceptible
throughout all foliar modifications. While
the leaves are still young, they are all similar;
it is only in attaining their perfect development
that they undergo a gradual metamorphosis,
which relieves the plant-world from
endless monotony of feature, and gives to
vegetation its æsthetic charms. In the words
of him who gave birth to the leading idea,

"All shapes are similar, yet all unlike."

The progression of leaf forms upon the plant
moves upward in orderly ascent, and each
step is so clearly marked that the links in
the chain may be separately distinguished.
In the perfect plant seven such stages of leaf-
development are seen. They have been
compared to the seven stories of a noble
palace, in which the upper chambers are
ever more magnificently decorated than the
lower.

The first, or lower stem-leaf formation,
including sheath-like leaves, often partially
excluded from light, although tending
upwards, leathery in substance, darkly yellow
in colour, marks the basement of the plant-
structure. The second, or proper stem-leaf
formation, including the great mass of the
foliage of the plant, of rich green colour, and
of luxuriantly diverse form, corresponds to the
ground-floor of the building. The third, or
upper stem-leaf formation, constituting the
next story, serves admirably to maintain the
harmony of the structure, exhibiting tract-
like leaves which approach, in construction, to
the calyx-leaf formation. This consists of
broad massive leaves, sometimes deeply
verdant, sometimes tinged with other colours,
and melting into the flower-leaf. In this
formation, the leaf attains its highest beauty:
delicate in structure, and dyed with the most
gorgeous hues, the flower-leaf combines the
most marvellous diversity of form, and the
most delicious perfume, with an exquisite
harmony of colour. In the stamen-leaf formation,
the flower-leaf is remarkably metamorphosed—
the sides of the leaf being pushed
upwards on its stalk, and resting, to form a
bag in which are developed the pollen-cells,
the fertilizing agents in the production of the
new plant. This change of flower-leaf into
stamen-leaf being checked, there result the
double flowers with which every one is
acquainted, in which increase of the flower-
leaves is obtained at the expense of the
stamens. In the last formation of the fruit-
leaf story, the destiny of the leaf is fulfilled;
struggling upward on the stem, it reaches its
highest development, and attains its noblest
form when nearest the sky. Here the leaf-
character is almost lost, for the individual
fruit-leaves are crowded together, uniting to
form a cavity, in which the fruit bud is
developed and which becomes the cradle of future
generations of plants.

It must not be imagined that all the
individual forms here described make their
appearance in every plant; but in all plants may
be traced a more or less perfect imitation of this
entire series of development: and in passing
in review all the gradations of plant-forms,
we clearly distinguish the eternal repetition of
the same process of generation, in accordance
with the law expressed in all its conditions in
the perfectly organised individual. With this
magic wand we compel all vegetable nature to
express its conditions of being; and it utters
the language of unswerving obedience to the
primal law of formation by recurrence in higher
forms of the original type. That which most
impresses us in contemplating the inexhaustible
variety of the plant-world, is not so much
the diversity of form as the unity in diversity.
This vital truth finds fresh illustration in
the animal kingdom. Just as the leaf is
the unit of the plant, so is the vertebra, or