every one in its place is absolutely necessary towards sustaining the whole magnificent fabric."

THE KINGDOMS OF NATURE.

Did it ever occur to the reader to inquire into the origin of that distribution of Nature into three Kingdoms, Mineral, Vegetable, and Animal? Naturalists have been scrupulous in recording the date of the establishment of each class in the animal and vegetable world; and beside the names of the species they have frequently recorded the names of the discoverers of these species. But scruples stopped there. The men who tell you the history of every genus, nay, of every species, of insects, polypes, and mosses, do not, because they cannot, tell you to whom the great primary groupings-those familiar "Kingdoms "-are due. Who first divided nature into three Kingdoms? Who first gave the name of Kingdom? Linnæus is silent-Cuvier has no word of explanation for his Règne Animal. Daubenton, indeed, did once intimate that our knowledge on this point was a blank; and a blank he left it. We are so familiarized with the division into Mineral, Plant, and Animal, that it is with difficulty we can conceive the division not to have always been accepted. But open Aristotle, who represents the whole science of antiquity, and you find him making the division to be that of animate and inanimate -a division accepted by all his followers-and, let us add, a division which, in spite of M. St. Hilaire, seems to us by far the most philosophical, seeing that the phenomena of organic substances are so intimately allied, and so broadly demarcated from those of inorganic substances, as to demand being grouped together in one division.

Where, then, is this division into three kingdoms to be found? To the surprise of M. St. Hilaire, and doubtless to that of all his readers, it is found in the writings of the alchemists. In the hermetical philosophy there is a strange combination of Pythagorean and Christian doctrines, and hence the employment of septenary and ternary divisions-the septenary, because of the seven days spoken of in Genesis, whence the seven planets, seven meteors, seven metals, seven precious stones, seven vital parts of man, seven notes of music, and so on— -the ternary, because everywhere in creation the image of the Creator, the Three in One, the tri-unitas is impressed. Hence the three kingdoms.

But whence the name kingdom? The alchemists seem to have been royalists quand même. They always spoke of the sun as the king of the stars; of gold as the king of metals; of man as the king of animals. How these names became repeated until familiarity forced them into scientific use, and how they gradually became adopted in systematic treatises, must be read in M. St.

Adaptation of Colour to Wants of Animal.

23

Hilaire's curious chapter, where also will be found an account of the various divisions since proposed by eminent authors-Daubenton, Oken, Carus, and De Candolle advocating four, Bory de Saint Vincent five, and Bischoff seven.-Abridged from the Saturday Review, April 25, 1857.

NUMBERS IN NATURE.

Physical science shows that numbers have a significancy in every department of nature. Two appears as the typical number in the lowest class of plants, and regulates that pairing or marriage of plants and animals which is one of the fundamental laws of the organic kingdoms. Three is the characteristic number of that class of plants which has parallel veined leaves, and is the number of joints in the typical digit. Four is the significant number of those beautiful crystals which show that minerals (as well as stars) have their geometry. Five is the model number of the highest class of plants, those with reticulated veins and branches,is the typical number of the fingers and toes of vertebrated animals, and is of frequent occurrence among star-fishes. Six is the proportional number of carbon in chemistry, and 3 x 2 is a common number in the floral organs of monocotyledonous plants, such as lilies. Seven appears as significant only in a single order of plants, (Heptandria,) but has an importance in the animal kingdom, where it is the number of vertebræ in the neck of mammalia; and according to Mr. Edwards, the typical number of rings in the head, in the thorax, and the abdomen of crustacea. Eight is the definite number in chemical composition for oxygen, the most universal element in nature, and is very common in the organs of sea-jellies. Nine seems to be rare in the organic kingdom. Ten, or 5×2, is found in star-fishes, and is the number of digits on the fore and hind limbs of animals.

Without going over any more individual numbers, we find multiple numbers acting an important part in chemical compositions, and in the organs of flowers; for the elements unite in multiple relations, and the stamens are often the multiples of the petals. In the arrangement of the appendages of the plant we have a strange series, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, which was supposed to possess virtues of an old date, and before it was discovered in the plant.

ADAPTATION OF COLOUR TO THE WANTS OF THE ANIMAL.

Upon this interesting inquiry, Mr. Broderip adduces the following evidences:

Throughout the animal creation, the adaptation of the colour of the creature to its haunts is worthy of admiration, as tending to its pre

servation. The colours of insects, of a multitude of the smaller animals, contribute to their concealment. Caterpillars which feed on leaves, are generally either green, or have a large proportion of that hue in the colour of their coats. As long as they remain still, how difficult it is to distinguish a grasshopper or young locust from the herbage or leaf on which it rests. The butterflies that flit about among flowers are coloured like them. The small birds which frequent hedges have backs of a brownish or brownish-green hue, and their bellies are generally whitish, or light-coloured, so as to harmonize with the sky. Thus, they become less visible to the hawk or cat that passes above or below them. The wayfarer across the fields almost treads upon the skylark before he sees it warbling to heaven's gate. The goldfinch or thistle-finch passes much of its time among flowers, and is vividly coloured accordingly. The partridge can hardly be distinguished from the fallow or stubble upon or among which it crouches; and it is considered an accomplishment among sportsmen to have a good eye for finding a hare sitting. In northern countries, the winter dress of the hares and ptarmigans is white, to prevent detection among the snows of those inclement regions.

If we turn to the waters, the same design is evident. Frogs even vary their colour according to that of the mud or sand that forms the bottoms of the ponds or streams which they frequent; nay, the treefrog (Hyla viridis) takes its specific name from the colour, which renders it so difficult to see among the leaves, where it adheres by the cupping-glass-like processes at the end of its toes. It is the same with fish, especially those which inhabit the fresh waters. Their backs, with the exception of gold and silver fish, and a few others, are comparatively dark; and some practice is required before they are satisfactorily made out. It is difficult to detect the ravenous hue," as old Izaak calls the pike, with its dark green and mottled back and sides, from the similarly tinted weeds among which that fresh-water shark lies at the watch, as motionless as they. Even when a tearing old trout, a six or seven pounder, sails in his wantonness, leisurely up the stream, with his backfin partly above the surface, on the look-out for a fly, few, except a well-entered fisherman, can tell what shadowy form it is that ripples the whimpling water.

Nor is this design less manifest in the colour and appearance of some of the largest terrestrial animals; for the same principle seems to be kept in view, whether regard be had to the smallest insects, or the quadrupedal giants of the land.

THE TREE OF LIFE.

The correspondence of religious symbols used by some of the ancient nations with those found on Christian monuments, and still more or less employed, would induce one to believe as much in the original unity of religious doctrine as in the unity of the human species. In illustration of this Dr. Barlow, in a communication to The Builder, Oct. 30, 1858, takes the palm-tree (Phoenix dactylifera), the sacred tree, the tree of life, among the Egyptians, the Assyrians, and the Jews. That the Egyptians, at a comparatively early period of their monumental history, represented the date-palm in this sense, we have a most interesting illustration on a stele in the Berlin Museum, which Dr. Lepsius found in the

village of Abousir, near the great Pyramid. From the stem of the tree proceed two arms,-one administering, to a figure kneeling below, the fruit or bread of life; the other pouring from a vase the water of life, which the recipient guides to his mouth. This stele is at least anterior to the fifteenth century before Christ. On a more recent stele the tree of life, among the Egyptians, is figured by the Ficus sycamorus, the sycamore-tree of the Bible; or, occasionally, by the persica, among the boughs of which the goddess Nutpe appears with her hieroglyphical name, Abyss of Heaven," administering to immortal souls the food and drink of the celestial regions.

The date-palm was largely introduced by the Jews in the decoration of Solomon's Temple, being represented on the walls, furniture, and vessels. In the last chapter of the Apocalypse there is a distinct reference to the palm-tree as the tree of life in the heavenly Jerusalem. For the tree here described (Rev. xxii. 1, 2), "which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations," is evidently intended for the palm-tree, popularly believed to put forth a shoot every month, and the leaves of which were used for writing on. Accordingly, we find the palm-tree figuring in Christian mosaics as the tree of life in Paradise. A very good illustration of this is found in the Apsis of S. Giovanni Laterano. We have here an enclosure, the entrance to which is guarded by an angel; and within appears the palm-tree, on which is perched the phoenix, with a glory of rays, God the Father standing on one side of the tree, God the Son on the other. The palm-tree was also represented as synonymous with the cross, and with Christ. This may be seen in the illuminated frontispiece to an Evangelium, probably of the ninth century, in the library of the British Museum. Here the symbols of the four Evangelists, placed over corresponding columns of lessons from their gospels, are shown looking up to a palm-tree that rises from the centre, and on the top of which is placed a cross, having suspended from its arms the symbolical letters, Alpha and Omega.

In Christian ichnography the cross is considered as identical with Christ. So we have here the source of the Divine life symbolized by the palm-tree as among the ancient Egyptians before their system had degenerated into idolatry.

These remarks were necessary in order to illustrate the meaning of the pine cone in the hands of the Assyrian winged figures, or personified symbolical principles of Deity, placed on each side of the Assyrian sacred tree on our Nineveh monuments.

It will be observed that the tree here represented is a conventional form of the palm-tree, and it is surrounded by an enclosure of palmettes, or abbreviated forms of this tree, as in a garden of Paradise. The pine cones are held towards the tree as having a

significant connexion with it, symbolizing the Divine principle of eternal life; and they are held towards the tree of life to indicate the source from whence that life is derived.

The Evangelist St. John has sometimes been represented with wings and an eagle's head, not unlike the Assyrian figures on the Nineveh marbles,-apropos of which might be quoted the curious fragment of the Zoroastrian oracles preserved by Eusebius (Præp. Evang. 1. 1, c. x.): "God is he that has the head of a hawk. He is the first indestructible, eternal, unbegotten," &c. According to Dr. Layard, Nisroch, in whose temple Sennacherib was slain by his sons, was neither more nor less than such a symbolical personified Deity, as Nisr, we are told, signifies an eagle in all the Semitic languages, and the graver's tool might easily confound the head of an eagle with that of a hawk.

Pine-cones, it may be remarked, are also held in the hands of the Assyrian winged figures in situations corresponding to those in which the symbolical divinities of the Egyptian theology hold the crux-ansata, the well-known symbol of eternal life, with which the pine-cone is shown to be synonymous.

Thus we find the same fundamental truth lying at the root of all religious teaching, as indicated by the remains of art and its records, among Egyptians, Assyrians, Jews, and Christians.

EVE'S APPLE-TREE.

It has been asked, What is the origin of the common mistake of calling the fruit of the forbidden tree an apple? No such phrase occurs in the Scripture. The mistake is, probably, due in part to a not very correct translation of the Latin word pomum. From pomum Adami we get Adam's apple. Other circumstances have helped the error. The idea that the fruit of Eden was an apple seems also to have found countenance in former days among the learned Jews. Thus, in the Song of Solomon, (ii. 5,) "comfort me with apples." The Targum has "apples of the garden of Eden." (See also Song viii. 5.)

It has long been known that there grows in parts of Palestine a tree supposed to bear the identical kind of fruit by eating which our first parents fell. Dr. Robinson, in his Biblical Researches, describes this tree as the Asclepias gigantea, the fruit of which, though beautiful to the eye, is a mere puff-ball, and collapses on being touched; and this fruit, says the learned Doctor, externally resembles a large smooth apple or orange. May not the deceptive appearance of this fruit have caused it to be associated with the forbidden fruit of Paradise, by which deceit, sin, and suffering were brought into the world?

We find, however, the tree more exactly described as one of the plants of Ceylon. Its native name is Diuri Kaduru; Kaduru