120 THE BEAUTIES OF NATURE CHAP. 
accounts for the redness of the berries; the 
Mistletoe was so grieved that she has ever 
since borne fruit like tears; and the crow, 
whose form Loki had taken, and which till 
then had been white, was turned black. 
This pretty myth accounts for several things, 
but is open to fatal objections. 
Recent attempts to explain the facts of - 
Nature are not less fascinating, and, I think, 
more successful. 
Why then this marvellous variety? this 
inexhaustible treasury of beautiful forms? 
Does it result from some imnate tendency in 
each species? Is it intentionally designed to 
delight the eye of man? Or has the form 
and size and texture some reference to the 
structure and organisation, the habits and 
requirements of the whole plant ? 
I shall never forget hearing Darwin’s paper 
on the structure of the Cowslip and Primrose, 
after which even Sir Joseph Hooker compared 
himself to Peter Bell, to whom 
A primrose by a river’s brim 
A yellow primrose was to him, 
And it was nothing more. 
