406 THE UNIVERSE. 



Desfontaines used to show us regularly at his lectures the 

 horn of a stag which had become almost entirely enveloped 

 by the trunk of a tree, into which the animal had, no doubt, 

 thrust the horn some little way in getting- rid of it. 



Some few years ago, when a large tree in the environs of 

 Orleans was cleft, a cavity quite closed up was found to- 

 wards its centre, containing a death's-head and cross-bones. 

 The astonishment of the public was extreme, and the prod- 

 igy was talked about everywhere. But really the whole 

 turned upon a vital phenomenon of which physiology gives 

 a complete explanation. At a distant epoch some anchorite 

 of the forest, having probably hollowed the tree, prostrated 

 himself and prayed before these human relics, which he 

 placed in the excavation. Then the recluse having disap- 

 peared in the course of years, nature took up the work 

 again, and ingeniously preserved the oratory by covering 

 it with thick woody layers. 



During the siege of Toulon, a ball from the English fleet 

 entered deep into the stem of a pine standing near the 

 town. The wound is now invisible. Should this tradition 

 be lost, how astonished would any one be, on cutting down 

 the tree, to find this enormous mass of iron ! 



Generally the denser plants are the slower in their 

 growth ; on the contrary, the softer their tissues the more 

 rapidly are they developed. 



Certain plants astonish us in this respect, and there are 

 even some the vital energy of which is so active that we 

 can in some measure pry into the secrets of their evolution ; 

 accordingly Cavanilles conceived the idea of seeing the 

 plant grow. For this purpose he directed strong glasses, 



