64 THE BEECH. 



Convinced, as are all thinking men, of the abso- 

 lute unity of nature, and with ten thousand familiar 

 illustrations lying at our feet, it is agreeable to note 

 those more recondite ones which " crop out," as 

 geologists say, where least expected, and under 

 conditions and circumstances the most dissimilar. 

 Who, for example, at the first glance, recognises 

 in the class of leaves to which that of the beech is 

 referable, and which is the predominant one in nature, 

 the meanest herb and weed being possessed of it 

 as well as the stateliest of trees : who, at the first 

 glance, recognises in it the idea which is wrought 

 out perfectly and consummately in the human body ? 

 The midrib of the leaf corresponds to and prefigures 

 the spinal column ; the great ribs which strike out 

 therefrom prefigure the bones which are called by 

 the same name ; the interior is traversed by a multi- 

 tude of delicate sap-vessels, which answer to the 

 veins and their crimson blood ; and over the entire 

 surface is spread an exquisitely -organised skin, 

 through pores in which the leaf absorbs moisture, 

 and perspires, and performs other functions so simi- 

 lar to those of the skin of the human body, that if 

 clogged with dirt or soot, the plant suffers no less 

 severely than a human being who ignores the bath. 

 Nor is this all. Every portion of the blossom of a 

 plant is a leaf curiously modified, so as to perform 

 the various and special functions that pertain to 

 flower -life. Sepals and corolla, stamens and pistil, 



