106 



THE POPLAR AND THE WILLOW. 



without ignoring equally just claims by many 

 others. What, for instance, becomes of the sen- 

 sitive-plant, with its marvellous susceptibility to 

 touch ? what of those strange vegetable carnivora, 

 the Dionaea and the Sundew, the Nepenthes and 



WILLOW. FEMALE FLOWERS. 



WILLOW. MALE FLOWERS. 



the Sarracenia, plants which are so organized as 

 to capture insects, and remind us of predatory 

 birds and quadrupeds ? No single plant, no race 

 of plants, is in all particulars pre-eminent, nor is any 

 one kind nearest to man, or even to animal life. 

 Nature is everywhere the echo and solution of its 



