Apparent ForcthoiigJit. 59 



This apparent forethought in preparing materi- 

 als and storing them for a time of need, is not man- 

 ifested by the trees alone, but in a greater or less de- 

 gree it is exercised by every plant that grows — 

 most manifest is it in those that live more than a 

 single year. 



What wonders are performed beneath our very 

 feet ! If we could look beneath the thick woven 

 sward of the meadows, or roll back the decaying 

 leaves of the forest, or pluck up the thickened root- 

 stocks of the water lily and kindred forms from their 

 oozy beds beneath the shallow lakes, we should find 

 in every place evidence of instinct-like forethought 

 among the plants and provision for their future 

 wants. 



When the frost of autumn and ice of winter 

 have covered the earth with death, so that to the 

 eye there seems to be but mere remnants of wither- 

 ed grass and herbage, we still wait in confident ex- 

 pectation that spring will wake new forms to sud- 

 den life from hidden germs, as by enchantment. In 

 roots of grass and bulb of lily, in all the thousand 

 store-houses beneath the soil, the busy, prudent 

 plants have laid up their provisions ready for instant 

 use — not to preserve life in winter — but for their 

 spring's work in bringing sudden beauty of leaf and 

 flower upon the earth, when wakened to activity 

 from their winter's sleep. They answer to the call 

 of the great magician, the sun, whose touch dis- 

 solves as by enchantment the flinty soil and palsy- 

 ing power of winter ; and now with eager haste they 

 utilize the stores of food which they carefully re- 

 served the year before, when they seemed to be liv- 



