ARCHITECTURE NATURE-ACTION 183 



them, as roots to the texture of the soil, or as leaves 

 to the temper of the wind and sun ; clinging to them as 

 a child clings to its mother and moulds itself to her 

 larger ways; or as a fish clings to the waters and fits 

 itself to the idiosyncasies of their life-giving pools and 

 currents. 



Thus what we carelessly call the "vital" organs, or 

 living tissues, of a given plant or animal are in reality 

 but a very small part of its sustaining resources; for 

 every organism is a pensioner to the labor of its outer 

 world of living and non-living things; and is tied to 

 its beneficiaries by countless visible or invisible archi- 

 tectural bonds. These bonds may be cancelled, in our 

 more direct discourse, but they should never be for- 

 gotten. 



We may picture this process of animal and plant 

 evolution as a growing tree with two main branches, 

 and a common stem representing the common stock in 

 which the two great lines of plant and animal life have 

 their origin. The two main lines of growth become 

 more and more widely separated in character, because 

 plants and animals utilized in their architecture widely 

 different constructive materials, and different methods 

 of assimilation and growth. 



As the whole animal kingdom and the whole plant 

 kingdom are come from the same common stock, are 

 of equal age, and have had equal rights and equal op- 

 portunities to utilize the franchise of earth, and sea, and 

 air, whatever difference there may be between them 

 must be in architectural methods and constructive ma- 

 terials, not in opportunity. That is, the difference, let 

 us say, between a flowering plant and a mammal must 



