Some stones are preserved by the curious, for representing distinctly figures traced by Nature alone, and without the aid of Art.

Pliny mentions an agate, in which appeared, formed by the hand of Nature, Apollo amidst the Nine Muses, holding a harp. Majolus assures us, that at Venice another is seen, in which is naturally formed the perfect figure of a man. At Pisa, in the church of St. John, there is a similar natural production, which represents an old hermit in a desert, seated by the side of a stream, and who holds in his hands a small bell, as St. Anchony is commonly painted. In the temple of

St. Sophia, at Constantinople, there was formerly, on a white marble, the image of St. John the Baptist, covered with the skin of a camel, with this only imperfection, that nature had given but one leg. - At Ravenna, in the church of St. Vital, a Cordelier is seen on a dusky stone. In Italy, a marble was found, in which a crucifix was so elaborately finished, that there appeared the nails, the drops of blood, and the wounds, as perfectly as the most excellent painter could have performed. At Sneilberg, in Germany, they found in a mine a certain rough metal, on which was seen the figure of a man, who carried a child on his back. - In Provence, was found, in a mine, a quantity of natural figures of birds, trees, rats, and serpents; and in some places of the western parts of Tartary, are seen on divers rocks, the figures of camels, horses, and sheep. Pancirollus, in his Lost Antiquities, attests, that in a church at Rome, a marble perfectly represented a priest celebrating mass, and raising the host. Paul III. conceiving that art had been used, scraped the marble to discover whether any painting had been employed; but nothing of the kind was discovered.

There is a species of the orchis found in the mountainous parts of Lincolnshire, Kent, etc Nature has formed a bee, apparently feeding in the breast of the flower, with so much exactness, that it is impossible at a very small distance to distinguish the imposition. Hence the plant derives its name, and is called the Bee Flower. This is elegantly expressed by Langhorne, who thus notices its appearance:

See on that floweret's velvet breast,

How close the busy vagrant lies! His thin-wrought plume, his downy breast,

The ambrosia gold that swells his thighs.

Perhaps his fragrant load may bind

His limbs; we'll set the captive free:- I sought the living Bee to find,

And found the picture of a Bee.