sight of a fort, watching for a favourable opportunity of capture. If none present itself, they make a dash upon the fields in the morning, while the shepherds and husbandmen are pursuing their occupations, and bear off with speed whoever they may be able to seize. If hotly pursued, they relinquish a spare horse with which every two individuals are provided, and gallop off to a place of safety. In such expeditions, the fleetness of his horse is the chief guarantee which the Toorkman has for his success, and he accordingly bestows the utmost attention on his beast. The Toorkmans are accustomed to subject the horses to severe exercise after a long abstinence from food and water, which brings the animals to a state of great hardihood. They are coarselooking animals, with none of the sleekness seen in European horses; but the manner in which they are trained enables them to bear great fatigue. On one occasion, the inhabitants of the town of Merve were attacked, and Bairam Khan, with 700 followers, were captured by a large troop and carried to Bokhara; upon which the wives and daughters of the prisoners embodied and appeared in the field as soldiers, performing such feats as have caused their names to be handed down in songs and legends.

Shurukhs is a Toorkman settlement, consisting of a small and weak fort, situated on a hillock, under cover of which most of the inhabitants have pitched their tents. There are a few mud houses, which have been built by the Jews of Mushed, who trade with this people. But the Toorkmans themselves live in the conical houses peculiar to their tribe: they are constructed of wood, surrounded by a mat of reeds, and roofed with felts, blackened with soot. Two thousand families are here domiciled, and about an equal number of horses. If their town be attacked by a force, either from Persia on the south, or from Khiva on the north, which they are unable to resist, they flee to the desert, and remain there till the storm is over. Sir A. Burnes heard of an incident at Shurukhs, which illustrates the dreadful state of enmity between the people on either side of this frontier. A Persian youth, who had been captured by the Toorkmans, dragged out a miserable life of servitude at Shurukhs. He was resolved to be free, and chose the opportunity of his master being at an entertainment, to effect his object. He saddled the best horse in the stable; and on the very eve of departure was discovered by his master's daughter, who attempted to give the alarm. He drew his sword, and put the girl to death. Her cries alarmed the mother, whom he also slew and as he was bidding his final farewell to Shurukhs, the master himself arrived. The speed of the horse, which had so often been employed in the capture of his countrymen, now availed this fugitive, who was pursued, but not overtaken: and thus, by an exertion of desperate boldness, did he regain his liberty, leaving the master to deplore the loss of his wife and his daughter, his slave and his horse.

As we shall soon leave the Toorkmans, we will give a brief description of one of their entertainments when guests are invited. Cakes are baked, about two feet in diameter, and an inch thick, of the coarsest flour, mixed up with slices of pumpkin. When the party assembles, a cloth is spread, and each person crumbles down the piece of cake which is laid before him. The meat is then brought, which generally consists of one entire sheep, boiled in a huge Russian pot. They separate the flesh from the bones, and tear it into as small pieces as the bread, with which it is then mixed. A dozen or more onions are then shred, and the whole, including meat, bread, and onions, is thrown into the hot liquor, or soup in which the sheep was boiled. The mess is then served out in wooden bowls, one of which is placed before every two persons. Each guest then fills his open hand from the bowl, and commencing from the wrist, licks up the soup like a dog, holding his hand and head over the bowl, which receives all that falls. Each of the two in his turn fills his hand, and holds his head over the bowl. Melons follow, and the banquet concludes with a pipe of tobacco. Such is an example of the manners of these children of the desert.

We now reach Mushed, the capital of Khorasan, and one of the most important cities in the Persian empire. The whole city is surrounded by a wall, which is said by the inhabitants to be twelve miles in circumference; but Mr. Fraser does not estimate it at more than one-half that extent. The wall, however, incloses many vacant spaces, which reduce the parts actually inhabited, to a much smaller limit. The whole city appears from the first to have been built of sun-dried bricks or mud, so that everything assumes the monotonous gray earthy colour common to all Persian towns. The approach to the houses is generally through

dark lanes and narrow alleys, "guiltless of the smallest attention to cleanliness or convenience." Most Oriental towns are deficient in broad streets, and Mushed is not an exception to this rule. The only street, worthy of the name, is that which extends from north-west to south-east. In the centre of this street runs a canal, the edges of which were once faced with stone; while large slabs of the same material were laid across at intervals as bridges: but many of them have fallen in, and the whole is greatly out of repair. A few trees are ranged along at the sides of the canal, and houses occupy both sides of the street. The most important public building in Mushed is the Mausoleum of Imaum Reza, described as being one of the most splendid structures to be found anywhere in the East: it is situated in the centre of the city, and the roads leading from all parts of the adjacent country, meet at this spot. The first thing that strikes the eye on arriving at this point, is a noble oblong square, inclosing an area a hundred and sixty yards in length, and seventy-five in breadth, built in the manner of a caravanserai, having two stories of apartments all round, which open in front into a handsome arcaded gallery. In the centre of each side and end, there is a magnificent and very lofty gateway, serving as entrances. The large square inclosed in this manner, which is called the Sahn, is flagged with grave-stones, which form almost a continuous pavement, and under which lie the bodies of Persians of noble birth. Three of the gateways lead from the city itself, while the fourth, on the south-west of the square, is the entrance to the grand mausoleum.

This mausoleum comprises a mass of buildings of an octagonal form, and covers an area not much less than that of the Sahn. A silver gate admits the devotee into a passage which leads to the chief apartment, beneath a gilded cupola. This apartment is of magnificent dimensions, rising into a lofty dome above, and branching out below into the form of a cross, the whole being ornamented with polished tiles, covered with azure and gold. The four lateral archways from this central apartment lead to shrines of most costly character. The arch at the north-west leads to a richly-carpeted room, in one corner of which is the shrine containing the ashes of the Caliph Haroun-al-Raschid: the shrine is surrounded by a massy grating of fine-wrought steel, within which is a railing of solid gold, and a door leading to the shrine is plated with gold and covered with jewels. Opposite to this jewelled door, an archway, screened by a curtain, leads to another octagonal apartment, domed, and lined with coloured tiles. This contains the bones of many great men. From the south-west archway in the great central chamber a broad passage leads to a court belonging to a very beautiful mosque. Both sides of this court are formed of buildings similar to those of the Sahn, having two stories of niches or compartments: it is paved with flag-stones, and in the centre is a small tank, which, with several jars in different corners, is kept full of water, for the purposes of ablution, or for quenching thirst. The mosque in the middle of this court has but one dome and one archway, which rises to a great height, in a noble screen, that conceals the neck of the dome. At either end of this screen rise minarets of a beautiful form, and the whole is richly decorated with coloured tiles. On each side of the space beneath the dome there are arcaded apartments, with matted floors, for the use of the moolahs, and those who retire to pray or to read the Koran: there is also before the archway a large platform, matted for the convenience of devotees, but the greatest number of these pray under the opposite archway of the mausoleum, or the niches on either side, which are fitted up for the purpose.

But it is necessary now for us to leave Mushed and its gilded mausoleum, and proceed on our journey.

Mushed is situated south-east of the Caspian Sea, and the route by which Europe may be reached is generally by way of Astrabad, on the shores of that sea. This distance is passed through a country beset with dangers of the same kind as those which occur north-east of Mushed. The Toorkmans of the Caspian, as they are called, have nearly the same love of plunder as their brethren, and the traveller has to look sharply about him while on this route. Sir A. Burnes had, through an interview with the Prince Royal of Persia, at Mushed, gained the assistance of a large escort in his future journey. Some Toorkmans had entered the Persian service, and the following incident, related by that traveller, will farther illustrate the manners of this people. "On winding through the valley we had an opportunity of witnessing an interesting sight, in the welcoming of a chief, or 'Aksukal,' who ad accompanied us from Koochan. We

had only known him as a wild Toorkman, and, for my own part, I had scarcely noticed him; but here he was a noble, and what is greater, a patriarch. He had been summoned by the Prince Royal, and now returned to his home. For miles before reaching the camp the Toorkmans crowded about us to bid him welcome: all of them were on horseback, men, women, and children, and several of them cried as they kissed his hand. At length, in a shady and picturesque part of the valley, a party which appeared more respectable than the others, had dismounted and drawn up. This was the family of the chief: he leaped upon the ground with the enthusiasm of a youth, rushed forward, and kissed in succession four boys, who were his sons. The scene was pathetic, and the witty Persians, who had before been imitating some of the actions and exclamations of the Toorkmans, were silenced by this fervent flow of affection. Three of the boys were under ten years of age, yet they mounted their horses with spirit, and joined the cavalcade.'

Through a country inhabited by Toorkmans, but subject, nominally at least, to the power of Persia, we travel onward to the shores of the Caspian; during the course of which route we pass through a few towns, but none of importance till we reach Astrabad.

Astrabad is the capital of a small province, bounded on the north by the Caspian Sea and the Toorkman Desert, on the south by the Elburz mountains, on the west by Mazanderan, another Persian province, and on the east by the river Gourgan. The capital is not above ten miles from the shores of the Caspian, and is believed to owe its origin to Yezzid ibu Mehloob, an Arab general, who built it towards the end of the first century of the Mohammedan era. The circumference of the town is about three miles and a half, the whole being surrounded by a high and thick wall, which is now in a ruinous condition. The streets are generally paved, and their cleanliness is promoted by a drain which runs through the centre of them. The town contains but few public buildings worthy of note. When Sir A. Burnes passed through it, he found it devastated by the plague which had visited it a short time before. Half the shops and houses were closed, literally for want of masters; and the whole town presented a very dreary and desolate appearance.

From Astrabad we proceed through the provinces of Astrabad and Mazanderan, to Teheran, the present capital of Persia. This district, like many others in the East, is frequently attacked with the plague, which produces sad devastation. An English traveller was informed by an inhabitant of one of the towns that he had lost a son by the disease, and that he and his wife had both been attacked. She was nursing a child at the time; and though she continued to suckle it, the infant escaped the danger. The man stated that he had had the horror to see his own child dragged to the door by eight or ten cats, whom he with difficulty scared away; and affirmed it as his belief, that more people were killed by dogs and cats on the occasion, or died from hunger, than from the disease itself.

Teheran is approached from the east either by horses or mules, through a country which presents few natural points of interest.

Here we take leave of our journey. We have before described Teheran, and on two former occasions have traced the overland route from about Teheran to Europe, 1st.-through the provinces between the Caspian and Black Seas, and thence through Russia: and 2nd.-along the northern shore of Asia Minor to Constantinople. It will not be necessary, therefore, to go again over this ground. The countries through which we have passed have been very rarely indeed visited by Europeans, and are inhabited by nations possessing, generally speaking, considerable vigour of character. The Seikhs of the Punjaub, the Afghans of Caubul, the Uzbeks of Balkh and Bokhars, and the Toorkmans of the sandy desert forming the northern boundary of Caubul and Khorasan, are all distinguished by such characteristics as make a journey among them no light matter. The overland journey is sometimes made in a direction somewhat more southerly, from Delhi towards Moultan near the Indus; thence to Candahar, in the middle of Caubul; thence to Herat, at the boundary between Caubul and Persia; and from Herat to Mushed. But the nature of the travelling along this route, and the objects met with by the way, do not differ much in character from those which have here engaged our attention.

Magazine.

V. THE DEMERARA AND BERBICE RIVERS. HAVING described the scenery and chief points of interest on the Essequibo river and its tributaries, we shall be able to dismiss in a narrower space our notice of the remaining rivers.

The river Demerara is situated between the Essequibo and the Berbice, and is navigable for ships of burden to a distance of about one hundred miles. For thirty miles from the mouth the country on the banks consists of extensive level meadows; then succeed numerous sandhills; and lastly a hilly region occurs, which gives rise to cataracts and rapids, at a distance of about a hundred miles from the source. The banks of the river present nearly the same appearance as those before spoken of, and the white inhabitants become more and more scattered the farther we ascend the river. The natives have many habits and usages peculiar to this part of the country, and among them we may mention the remarkable mode of catching birds by the "blow-pipe."

A reed grows in Guyana to the length of twelve or fourteen feet, perfectly straight and uniform throughout its whole length, hollow, free from knots or joints, of a bright yellow colour, and perfectly smooth inside and out. Another kind of reed or stem also grows there, which is brown, knotted at intervals, and susceptible of a fine polish. The natives collect one of each of these kinds, extract the pith from the larger stem, and insert the VOL. XVIII.

reed within it, thus giving strength to the reed. This forms the blow-pipe of the Indian, into which he inserts a short arrow, and applies one end to his mouth, to blow the arrow out. The arrow is about ten inches long, and is made out of the leaf of a species of palm-tree, hard and brittle, and pointed as sharp as a needle. The middle of the arrow is bound round with cotton, to make it nearly fit the tube: one end is scorched, to make it harder, and the other end is poisoned. A quiver is provided which will hold five or six hundred arrows.

With a quiver of poisoned arrows slung at his back, and the blow-pipe in his hand, the bird-hunter advances cautiously to the woody region where the birds are located. When he espies a bird within arrow-distance, he takes a poisoned arrow from his quiver, puts it in the blow-pipe, directs the tube towards the bird, applies it to his mouth, and blows strongly and suddenly through it. Seldom does he miss the object of his aim. If the bird be struck, or if the skin merely be pierced, it is generally dead within three minutes afterwards. The bow and poisoned arrows are also employed by the natives in their search for large birds and quadrupeds.

The river Berbice, which is eastward of the Demerara, was but little known until explored by Mr. Schomburghk, in 1836-7. When this part of the colony was in the hands of the Dutch East India Company, there were settlements on the banks of the river to a distance of

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sixty miles from the sea, but now, from various causes, there are but few white inhabitants met with above the town of New Amsterdam. At one spot Mr. S. met with a neat cottage, the proprietor of which (a Dutchman) cultivated rice, and received the travellers very kindly. Farther on he met with a large wood-cutting establishment, belonging to a Mr. M'Cullum, and employing about two hundred Indians and fifty negroes: these men fell the trees, and square the timber. The Indians were kindly treated by their employer, and are said to be excellent working servants, but there are some proprietors of land who act unfairly and ungenerously towards these tribes: they supply an Indian with articles on credit, sometimes to a large amount, provided he is able to work, being aware that the Indian deems himself in duty bound to work for his creditor until the debt is paid: but many wood-cutters use every means to prevent his getting out of debt, by constantly supplying him with more goods and large quantities of rum, whereby the poor Indian is kept in a state of bondage. To lessen this evil, a protector of Indians has been appointed.

The natives pass on the shallow parts of this river in very flat, shallow, light canoes, called woodskins. They are made of a single piece of the tough bark of the murianara tree, which grows to a very large size: an incision is made in the bark to the extent required, and it is then removed by driving in wedges: when loosened from the wood the bark is kept open by cross-sticks, and is supported at the extremities upon two beams. Vertical incisions, about two feet asunder, and a few inches in depth are then made, and the parts secured by overlapping. This frail boat, although one man can carry with ease on his head, frequently holds three persons and a quantity of luggage, in passing through the shallow parts of the Berbice river.

it

High up the river the party came to a spot where the contracted stream forms an entrance to a natural basin, bordered by hills, and here occurred a fall, not very deep, but of too great rapidity to permit the canoes and boats to be forced up it, which was done in many other instances. The party therefore hauled up, and conveyed the baggage by hand to the head of the fall, but the large canoes, or corials, were forced through the rushing water. Hendrick, a courageous Indian, gained onet of the rocks in the middle of the cataract, and seized the end of a boat-rope which was thrown to him. He then carried it to a less dangerous place, to which some of the other Indians had arrived by swimming; and the whole party then drew the corial by main strength up the opposing current. In effecting the same object with another corial Hendrick lost his footing in the middle of the cataract, and was swept away, but being just enabled to grasp tightly a rope thrown out to him, he was fortunately saved."

This part of the river abounds in kaymans, or large alligators, animals which appear to be very tenacious of life. On one occasion a kayman was shot, the ball taking off the end of the snout: another ball was lodged in the hinder part of the skull; and after the Indians had beaten the animal till life appeared to be extinct, it was lifted out of the water, and placed in the bow of the corial. When, soon afterwards, the corial had to be drawn up a rapid, the kayman was in the way, and two men took it up, to move it to a more convenient place; but scarcely had they done so when it suddenly leaped into the water. On another occasion, when a kayman had been shot and taken, a piece of the windpipe three inches in length was cut out, to ensure the death of the animal, but it was still found living the next day, and was only finally despatched by piercing the brain with a sharp knife.

Snakes of rather a fearful size are found on the banks of the river. One measuring sixteen feet in length and twenty-eight inches in circumference was seen by the party close to the shore. Hendrick jumped ashore, and

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dexterously slipped a noose round its head, and was on the point of securing it, when the snake turned round and made a motion as if to dart at him. At this attack all his courage forsook him, and he retreated with preci pitation over bushes and rocks into the water. other Indians stood petrified, and could not be persuaded to put a finger to the. rope by which the snake was held. At this juncture a timely shot from one of the party despatched the snake and redeemed the rope. It was on the 1st of January, 1837, that Mr. Schomburghk, somewhat dispirited at the toils and difficulties which he had encountered, met with that wonderful flower which, at his request, was named after Her Majesty, and which the reader will call to mind as the Victoria regia. He says:

:

Some object on the southern point of the basin attracted my attention: I could not form any idea of what it might be, and I hurried the crew to increase the rate of their paddling in a short time we were opposite the object of our curiosity, a vegetable wonder. All calamities were forgotten; I felt as a botanist, and felt myself rewarded. A gigantic leaf, from five to six feet in diameter, salver-shaped, with a broad rim of a light green above, and a vivid erimson below, rested upon the water: quite in character with the wonderful leaf was the luxuriant flower, consisting of many hundred petals, passing in alternate tints, from pure white to rose and pink. The smooth water was covered with them, and I rowed from one to the other, observing always something new to be admired.

Mr. Schomburghk then proceeds to describe more minutely the botanical features of the flower, but this description we must pass over.

Our travellers espied a large herd of kairounies, or Indian hogs, and, as their stock of provisions was getting low, an attack on the herd was resolved on. The hogs were wallowing in a pool of muddy water, one being left as sentinel to give the alarm if an enemy ap proached. This sentinel was fired at, and immediately the whole herd of two hundred scampered off in an opposite direction. The party dispersed in various directions to shoot some of the hogs during their retreat, but it so happened that the Indians unintentionally drove the herd towards the spot where Mr. Schomburghk was standing alone.

I heard a rushing noise (he says) like a whirlwind, approaching through the bushes: the peculiar growl, and that awful clapping of the teeth, did not leave me long in doubt as to its cause: it was evident that the herd had divided, and were coming directly towards me. I stood alone, unarmed, and had not even a knife to defend myself. I know not yet how I climbed the lower part of a mora tree, when by they rushed, their muzzles almost sweeping the ground, and their rough bristles on the back standing erect. They came past like a whirlwind, and before I had recovered from my astonishment I heard them plunge into the river, and swim over to the opposite bank.

When the party had explored the river Berbice almost to its source, they returned, and on approaching near the settlements Mr. Schomburghk lost by death an enter prising young companion who had shared his dangers and toils. On February 11 this gentleman, Mr. Reuss, suddenly became low-spirited, and said 66 he knew he should die young." On the following day the corials had to be directed down a rapid and cataract by the skill of some of the Indians. Mr. Reuss determined to make one of the party, against all the solicitations of Mr. Schomburghk. The corial was launched down the rapid, Mr. Reuss standing when he ought to have been seated, and, by some bad management the corial became upset, and all the crew precipitated into the river. Mr. Reuss was drowned, and his companions had the melancholy task of interring him on the banks of the river.

The travellers had not seen a human habitation of any kind for the space of two months, when, on the 20th February they arrived at some Indian huts. From thence they proceeded to the European settlements, and finally came to New Amsterdam, from whence they started.

We now conclude our notice of British Guyana. There are one or two other rivers which we have not particularly noticed, but the notable objects presented by them so nearly resemble others which have already engaged our attention, as to preclude the necessity for farther description. The reader will gather from these details, that British Guyana is a beautiful and fruitful country, abounding in animals and plants of various kinds, thinly inhabited by dark-skinned natives, who are generally of a peaceful character, and by colonists at a few towns situated near the mouths of three or four rivers flowing northward into the Atlantic.

DO STONES GROW?

THE opinion that stones grow and increase in size is very popular, and very erroneous. We hear it stated by many persons with all the certainty of a well attested fact, and yet there are few vulgar errors which rest upon a more flimsy foundation.

A writer, who, by the ease and familiarity of his style first attempts to render a very difficult subject popular, often runs the risk of diffusing error as well as truth. M. de Tournefort, the immediate predecessor of Linnæus, deprived botany of much of its forbidding aspect, and greatly promoted its study by a new system of classification and a new and easier method of description. In 1702, after returning from his travels in the Levant, he wrote an account, among other objects, of the botanical productions which he had examined during his travels. In surveying the labyrinth of Crete he observed that the names which visitors had engraved upon the rock were not formed of hollow but of prominent letters, like bassorelievos. He supposes that these letters were at first hollowed out by knives; that the hollows have since been filled up by the growth of the stone; and hence he indulges in the fancy that stones increase in size like the productions of the vegetable world which constituted his favourite study.

The pleasing style of Tournefort's Travels caused his book to be much read, and hence arose the popular error that stones grow. It would be satisfactory to be well assured that the letters were at first hollowed, before at tempting to account for their prominency; but assuming the fact to be as he states it, we proceed to state few of the conditions necessary to the growth or en largement of matter.

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The various objects of the material world are conveniently arranged into two great classes, the organized and the unorganized: the former includes animals and plants, and the latter minerals. In animals and plants we observe a system of organs, gradually rising from a very simple to a very complex method of arrangement, and destined to the performance of certain vital functions. In minerals we find none of these organs, and consequently there cannot exist in them the vital principle which is the distinctive character of the former. We readily admit also that vitality was not present in minerals during their formation; but the slightest trace of organization in any natural body is a clear proof that life does exist or has existed in it. Unorganized bodies are made up of elementary atoms, or of proximate principles, in which elementary atoms are united in certain definite proportions. When these are brought together in a gradual manner by the force of affinity 'rom a state of solution or of fusion, they assume various eometric forms called crystals. These crystals can aly increase in size by the addition of other atoms to heir external surfaces, and it often happens that this crease goes on to an indefinite extent; the original rystalline form being constantly maintained. Should ie circumstances under which these crystalline forms re produced cease to operate, the atoms may still unite id form shapeless masses which, however, possess the ime definite character of composition as if they had

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been recently crystallized. Rocks and stones, the ocean and the atmosphere, are mixtures of simple minerals, or of the simple substances of which the latter are formed. The earth itself, and probably the various heavenly bodies, are regarded as large masses of mineral or unorganized matter.

Although an animal or a plant is in substance composed of the same simple atoms as those which compose minerals, yet they are eminently distinguishable from the latter by the manner in which they increase in bulk. The various organs of such bodies are not, as in the structure of minerals, similarly composed throughout; they increase by the assimilation of food, which being received into the system through certain cavities or vessels, is formed by peculiar processes into specific compounds, adapted to the nutrition and growth of the animal or plant. Now, in the example furnished by Tournefort, the protuberancy of the characters cannot be called growth, nor, as he terms it, vegetation; because it is, in no respect, effected by a process similar to the vegetation of a plant. Vegetation supposes vessels containing fluids and growth by expansion; but would any one contend for a moment for the existence of vessels in a stone; of fluids moving in them; or of the different parts expanding and swelling like the branch or trunk of a tree? Even the fact, as stated by Tournefort, proves nothing; for he does not pretend that the rock itself is increasing in bulk, but only that a few insignificant hollows have become filled up with fresh stony particles which project a little beyond the general surface of the rock. This filling up may be explained by referring to the process by which stalactites are formed. When water saturated with calcareous matter is exposed to the air, the water evaporates, and the calcareous earth remains behind and gradually hardens into stone.

The popular notion that stones grow, has led to the practice of watering coals and keeping them wet for a long time before they are used. The effect of this practice is simply this: When the wet coals are thrown upon the fire they cannot burn until the greater part of the moisture is converted into steam, and thus dissipated; a large portion of the heat which would otherwise warm the apartment is now lost; for it combines with the water to form steam, which, with the smoke, ascends the chimney instead of radiating into the apartment.

The distinctions which we have pointed out between organized and unorganized matter will be sufficient to show that a negative answer must be given to the question, "Do stones grow?" The precise limits between minerals and organized bodies may be considered as ascertained; but the line of demarcation between the two kingdoms of organized nature is by no means precise. However simple the questions may appear, "What is a plant?" and, "What is an animal?" naturalists have found great difficulty in answering them in such a manner as to satisfy all the conditions under which organized matter is found. For a long time it was considered satisfactory to define a plant as "a being with life and without the power of locomotion," and an animal as "a being possessing life and the power of locomotion;" but such definitions lost their value when it was found that some of the lower tribes of animals had not the power of moving about from place to place; and that some plants could do so to a certain extent. Perhaps the most constant distinction between these two great classes is the presence in animals of internal sacs or stomachs for the reception of food; organs with which plants are not furnished.

There is no difficulty in admitting that plants, in common with animals, possess vital energy, which distinguishes them from inert matter, and displays itself by its effects. If we would extend the inquiry beyond the examination of these effects, and seek to know what vitality is, we are soon brought to a pause, and admit the inefficiency of our means to penetrate those mysteries