TRANSMUTABLE. 101 



in a dream of useless and unintelligible specula- 

 tion. 



I copy the following from the "Edinburgh 

 Philosophical Journal, for April, I860:" "Wei- 

 lingtonia gigantea. But if the wood is fresh the 

 bark is not. Our friends found it a great deal 

 worse to cut through than wood. It is tough and 

 stringy, like coir or the husk of coco-nut, and is 

 from a foot to a foot and a half in thickness. 

 We have here one of those beautiful adaptations 

 of structure to purpose which delights the mind 

 to trace. It is obvious that if the Wellingtonia, 

 being so fragile, were coated with bark of only 

 a common thickness and ordinary consistence, it 

 never could live to be a tree ; it would be snapped 

 across by the first wind that blew, so soon as it 

 reached a sufficient height to give the wind a 

 hold upon its branches; but with a coating of 

 bark so thick, so tough, so stringy, so spongy, 

 and so elastic, it is kept in its place, and pro- 

 tected from its own fragility^ and, as has been 

 pointed out to me by my intelligent friend Mr. 

 Bryson. this support is given in the way which 

 modern science has ascertained to furnish the 

 greatest amount of strength with the least waste 

 of substance. 



The bark is constructed on a different plan 

 from that of most other trees; it is on the plan 

 of the corrugated roof, running longitudinally round 

 the tree; the corrugated layers are composed of 

 harder texture, and the interstices are packed 

 with an elastic spongy substance. 



