34 BOTATION AND DISTRIBUTION. 



kinds, like the oak, the beech, and the hard maple, will 

 gradually starve out the inferior species, and in the 

 course of time predominate over the whole surface. 



When I consider all these relations between plants and 

 animals, I feel assured, if the latter were destroyed that 

 plant their seeds, many species would perish and disap- 

 pear from the face of the earth. Nature has provided, 

 in all cases, against the destruction of plants, by endow- 

 ing the animals that consume their fruits with certain 

 habits that tend to perpetuate and preserve them. In 

 this way they make amends for the vast quantities they 

 consume. After the squirrels and jays have hoarded nuts 

 for future use, they do not find all their stores ; and they 

 sow by these accidents more seeds than could have been 

 planted by other accidental means, if no living creature 

 fed upon them. Animals are not more dependent on 

 the fruit of these trees for their subsistence, than the 

 trees are upon them for the continuance of their species. 

 And it is pleasant to note that, while plants depend 

 on insects for the fertilization of their flowers, they are 

 equally indebted to a higher order of animals for plant- 

 ing their seeds. The wasteful habits of animals are an 

 important means for promoting this end. The fruit of 

 the oak, the hickory, and the chestnut will soon decay 

 if it lies on the surface of the ground, exposed to alter- 

 nate dryness and moisture, and lose its power of germina- 

 tion. Only those nuts which are buried under the surface 

 are in a condition to germinate. Many a hickory has 

 grown from a nut deposited in the burrow of a squirrel ; 

 and it is not an extravagant supposition that whole for- 

 ests of oaks and hickories may have been planted in this 

 manner. 



These facts are too much neglected in our studies of 

 nature. A knowledge of them, and a consideration of 

 their bearings in the economy of nature, might have saved 



