blacks and mulattoes. In 1818 Petion died, and was succeeded by General Boyer, a mulatto who had been in France, and had accompanied Leclerc in his expedition. In 1820, Christophe having become involved in differences with his subjects, shot himself; and the two parts of the island were then reunited under the general name of the Republic of Hayti, General Boyer being the first president. In the following year, the Spanish portion of the island, which for a long time had been in a languishing condition, voluntarily placed itself under the government of Boyer, who thus became the head of a republic including the entire island of St Domingo. In 1825, a treaty was concluded between President Boyer and Charles X. of France, by which France acknowledged the independence of Hayti, in consideration of 150 millions of francs (£6,000,000 sterling), to be paid by the island in five annual instalments, as a compensation for the losses sustained by the French colonists during the revolution. The first instalment was paid in 1836; but as it was found impossible to pay the remainder, the terms of the agreement were changed in 1838, and France consented to accept 60 millions of francs (£2,400,000), to be liquidated in six instalments before the year 1867. Two of the instalments have already been paid. In the political constitution of the island, no change of any importance has taken place till the present time; and the republic of Hayti continues to be governed by a president elected for life, and two legislative houses; one a senate, the other a chamber of representatives.

According to the latest accounts of this interesting island, the annual exports amounted to upwards of thirty millions of pounds of coffee, six millions of pounds of logwood, one million of pounds of cotton, five millions of feet of mahogany, besides considerable quantities of tobacco, cigars, sugar, hides, wax, and ginger. Certain goods are admitted duty free, among which the principal are, arms, ammunition, agricultural implements, cattle, and school-books. The Roman Catholic religion is over the whole island, but all other sects are tolerated. The clergy are said to be ignorant and corrupt; and their influence over the opinions or the morals of the community is small. In the principal towns there are government schools, some of them on the Lancasterian plan: in the capital there is a military school; and there are also a number of private academies in the island. The armed force of Hayti consists of thirty-three regiments of the line, five regiments of artillery, two of dragoons, the president's guard, and a numerous police, amounting in all to nearly 30,000 men. Besides this regular force, there is a militia or national guard of about 40,000 men, the superior officers of which are nominated by the president, the inferior elected by the privates. Hayti possesses scarcely any naval force. In 1837 the revenue of the island was 3,852,576 dollars, and its public expenditure 2,713 102 dollars.

With respect to the social condition of the island, there are, unfortunately, few trustworthy particulars; although the general fact is indisputable, that it is a condition of advancement. There are undoubtedly many imperfections in the republic, many traces of barbarism, much absurdity perhaps, and much extravagance; but still the fact remains that here is a population of blacks which, in the short space of fifty years, has raised itself from the depths and the degradation of slavery to the condition of a flourishing and respectable state. All that we are accustomed to regard as included in the term civilisation, Hayti possesses -an established system of government, an established system of education, a literature, commerce, manufactures, a rich and cultivated class in society. Twenty-six years since, the Baron de Vastey, one of the councillors of Christophe, and himself a pure negro, published some reflections on the state of Hayti, in which the following passage occurs:-" Five-and-twenty years ago," says he, we were plunged in the most complete ignorance; we had no notion of human society, no idea of happiness, no powerful feeling. Our faculties, both physical and moral, were so overwhelmed under the load of slavery, that I myself who am writing this, I thought that the world finished at the line which bounded my sight; my ideas were so limited, that things the most simple were to me incomprehensible; and all my countrymen were as ignorant as myself, and even more so, if that were possible. I have known many of us," he continues, "who have learned to read and write of themselves, without the help of a master; I have known them walking with their books in their hands inquiring of the pas sengers, and praying them to explain to them the signification of such a character or word; and in this manner many, already advanced in years, became able to read and write without the benefit of instruction. Such men," he adds, "have become notaries, attorneys, advocates, judges, administrators, and have astonished the world by the sagacity of their judgment; others have become painters and sculptors by their own exertions, and have astonished strangers by their works; others, again, have succeeded as architects, mechanics, manufacturers; others have worked mines of sulphur, fabricated saltpetre, and made excellent gunpowder, with no other guides than books of chemistry and mineralogy. And yet the Haytians do not pretend to be a manufacturing and commercial people; agriculture and arms are their professions; like the Romans, we go from arms to the plough, and from the plough to arms."

In conclusion, we can only express a hope that nothing may occur to disturb either the external relations or the internal repose of this singularly regenerated people.

32

CURIOSITIES OF VEGETATION.

HE vegetation which everywhere adorns the surface of the globe, from the moss that covers the weatherworn stone, to the cedar that crowns the mountain, is replete with matter for reflection and admiration. Not a tree that lifts its branches aloft, not a flower or leaf that expands beneath the sunlight, but has something of habit or of structure-something of form, of fragrance, or of colour-to arrest the attention. It is true that early and constant familiarity has a tendency to render us unobservant of that which surrounds us; but that individual must be idle, and ignorant as idle, whose curiosity cannot be awakened by a description of the wonderful mechanism and adaptations of vegetable life. It is to a brief account of the more remarkable phenomena that the following pages are devoted; not with a view to excite mere unreasoning wonder, but with a desire to create a spirit of inquiry into principles as well as into facts, and to lead the mind to one of the most agreeable pursuits which the wide field of nature presents.

GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF PLANTS.

Minerals, plants, and animals, are all formed by the chemical combination of certain elementary substances. In minerals, these elements combine by the force of chemical affinity only; but in plants and animals, they are held in combination by vital action. Vitality enables plants and animals to absorb and assimilate food, consisting of the elements necessary for their increase, and also to reproduce beings of their own kind by means of certain organs;

hence they are said to be organised, and the substances of which they are composed are known by the general name of organic matter. Minerals not possessing vitality have no organs, and consist only of inorganic matter. Plants derive their sustenance from inorganic matter-air, earth, and water; animals cannot do so, but must live on vegetables, or prey upon each other. Vegetation, therefore, must be the precursor of animal life in the economy of nature.

The simplest forms of life are observable in certain plants and animals whose economy is limited to the absorption and assimilation of nutriment, and the power of reproduction; and the difference between these humble plants and animals is so trifling, that in them the animal and vegetable kingdoms seem to pass into each other. Thus, notwithstanding all the light which modern science has thrown on organic life, we are yet unable to distinguish between certain lowly forms of corallines and sponges, and to say which are plants and which are animals. But while to the eye of imperfect knowledge the lowest forms of plants and animals seem to merge into each other, it must be ever borne in mind that, beyond a faint analogy, there is nothing like identity between the respective functions of these two great kingdoms.

Few plants possess the power of locomotion; and though the aquatic plant called the fresh-water sailor seems to detach itself from the mud in which it originally grows, and rises to the surface of the water to expand its flowers, this must be regarded as the necessary result of a peculiar mechanism, and not of volition. Plants are propagated by division; and it is only among the lowest living forms, as sponges and polyps, that detached parts will become perfect individuals. Plants have no stomach; and though the lobe-like leaves of Venus's fly-trap are said to digest the flies they catch, this fact must be regarded rather as the result of ordinary decay than of true digestion. Plants are without feeling. Though the leaves of the sensitive plant shrink at the slightest touch, yet we cannot, without a misapplication of words, apply the term feeling where no nervous structure has yet been discovered. In like manner, the growth of young trees and shrubs has been compared to the spinal marrow of animals; the upward current of the sap in spring, and its descent in autumn, to the circulation of the blood; and the exhalation of oxygen, and the absorption of carbonic acid gas in the leaves, to respiration; but all these are mere analogies, not identities of function. Indeed all the vital operations of plants are performed in a different manner from those of animals; the instances of locomotion, sensitiveness, and power of digestion in plants being very rare and imperfect, while the power of propagating by division in animals is equally so.

Plants, whether rooted in the soil or on other organic bodies --whether floating in water or suspended in the atmosphere,

are dependent upon air, moisture, heat, and light, for their perfect development. Besides these conditions, many require nourishment from the soil; but, strange as it may appear at first sight, soil is not essential to vegetation in general; for many plants, such as aquatics, parasites, and aerials, grow and propagate their kind without once coming in contact with the ground. It is common to divide the vegetable kingdom into two great sections-those plants which flower, as trees, shrubs, and grasses, and those which do not flower, as ferns, sea-weeds, and mushrooms. It is also usual to arrange them according to their manner of growth. Thus, some increase by external layers, as the fir, the wood of which shows many concentric layers, each ring being a year's growth; others grow from within, as the palm, the trunk of which shows no concentric layers; and some increase by mere prolongation of the apex, or growing point, as the ferns, sea-weeds, and lichens. Those which increase by external layers, have the nerves of the leaves reticulated or netted, as in the apple; those which grow by internal additions, have the nerves arranged in parallel order, as in the lily; and those which add to their bulk by simple extension of the growing point, have no distinct venation, as in the lichens.

REPRODUCTION AND DISPERSION OF PLANTS.

The main object of a plant during growth seems to be the reproduction of its kind. Whether the term of its being be limited by a day, by a year, or by centuries, its sole effort-as it proceeds from leaf to stem, from stem to branch, and from branch to flower and fruit-is the multiplication of itself. This is effected variously by seeds, by spores or embryo plants, by tubers, by runners which put forth shoots as they elongate, by branches which send down roots, by branches bending downwards and taking root, by slips or detached branches, or even by single leaves.

Increase by seed is the most familiar mode of reproduction, being common to all flowering plants. Seeds are merely leaves

preserved in peculiar cerements against the return of the season of growth. They are also furnished with a sufficiency of nutriment for the embryo plant, till its roots have struck into the soil, and its leaves be expanded into the atmosphere. For the excitement of growth in seeds, a certain amount of heat and moisture is necessary; but too much heat would parch them, and too much cold or moisture would destroy their vitality. To provide against