174 NATURE STUDY. 



Nature's Economy in Forms. 



BY O. H. LKAVITT. 



The circle or the sphere se^m t3 b^ Nature's ideal in all 

 of her productions. In fruits and vegetables, from the cur- 

 rant to the cabbage and the pumpkin; in the trunks of trees 

 and in the limbs and bodies of animals, with slight varia- 

 tions due to the uses to be made of them, the same idea is 

 shown . 



The snowball which increases as it rolls down hill keeps 

 its circular form, and the icicle hanging to the eaves is 

 round, however much it may vary in size at its extremities. 



In the case of vegetable growths and the snowball and 

 icicle the form may be accounted for by the fact of a cen- 

 tral starting point around which accumulation was made. 

 The circle also represents the greatest strength and least 

 exposed surface for the enclosed area. 



The things so far named may be looked npon as the re- 

 sults of construction, but we find that the work of destruc- 

 tion leaves similar results; the pebbles on the beach are 

 worn round, and the hills themselves are being rounded as 

 they are worn away by the action of the elements. Every 

 fragment broken from a rock as it rolls down the cliff is 

 from a projecting corner. The planets themselves are 

 globular in form and turn no square corners in their orbits, 



Nature is governed wholly by economy in form for the 

 uses intended to serve. There is no call for economy in 

 space, and the " waste room " between objects is of no ac- 

 count, for we stretch the imagination to the utmost possible 

 limit and the question still stares us in the face . What is 

 beyond that ? 



The wisdom of the circular form is seen in the case of 

 trees in which the heart wood has all decayed and fallen 

 down, yet a thin shell on the outside supports the tree and 



