THE MAPLE AND THE SYCAMORE. 71 



dandelion, from which we blew the little ships into the aerial sea, 

 reckoning, as they sailed away, what the sun-dial was never asked, 

 this is but one of a thousand toys that at the same moment are 

 miracles of beauty, inside as well as outside. Well may we say 

 "inside," in respect of the sycamore seeds, for these, if carefully cut 

 open when quite or nearly ripe, present one of the prettiest spectacles 

 in the world. Lined with the softest and whitest silk, in the centre 

 lies, doubled up, the rudiment of the future tree ; not a simple mass of 

 albuminous kernel, as in the nut, but a couple of perfectly-formed 

 green leaves, resembling little strips of green ribbon, so folded and 

 involved that to separate them without fracture is a matter of some 

 difficulty. The hinge-like point of union is the actual embryo ; these 

 two delicate green thongs are the cotyledons or " seed-leaves," which 

 parts, in the seed of a plant, occupy the place and fulfil the purpose 

 of the mother's bosom with regard to her infant. Charged with 

 exquisitely tender food, as soon as the embryo awakes to active life, 

 these pretty cotyledons become the main source of its nourishment, 

 and upon these it depends until the growth of the root and ascending 

 plumule enables it to forage in the earth and atmosphere. 



The celebrated Genevese naturalist, Charles Bonnet, was the first to 

 point out this beautiful and expressive analogy; to-day, it is recognised 

 universally that the cotyledons of the seed are the vegetable mammae. 

 So close and striking at every point is the agreement of the idea of 

 the plant with that of human nature ! The question, in truth, is not 

 so much what may be the likeness between man and the trees, but what 

 is the difference between them ! How hard even to speak of a tree 

 except in terms first framed to denote the members of our own bodies ! 

 The main pillar is the " trunk ;" the branches are the " arms ;" in the 

 foliage we have, poetically, the "tresses;" the sap-vessels are the 

 " veins ;" and in the end, when a name is wanted for the organs of the 

 kindliest office of all, because in charity so sweet, see how soon and 

 accurately by transference from woman ! Unable, from the nature of 

 its organisation, to feed its offspring immediately from its own body, as 

 animals do, the plant bestows on every one of its progeny a couple of 

 these pretty prefigurements of the mother's bosom ; and however far 

 the wind may carry them away, whatever geographical accident may 

 befall them, nevertheless, within the shell, as soon the latent life begins 

 to stir, here are these delicate cotyledons ready to give suck. When, 

 as happens in certain races of plants, the cotyledons are exceedingly 

 minute, the deficiency is compensated by an abundant storage within 



