THE BIRCH AND THE ALDER. 145' 



which come of its plenty, even did they not gleam 

 in the distance like drifts of summer snow; and in 

 this particular we get the first suggestion of a 

 possible affinity with the heather tribe, one of which, 

 called Clethra arborea,, seems surely to have been 

 scented from the same fountain. Examined in the 

 light, the individual blossoms show likeness again to 

 those of the Clethra; the Clethra in turn discloses 

 points of affinity with the heather; and at last we 

 find that all these plants are but varied utterances of 

 a single idea. The same may be said of the Parnassia 

 and the golden-saxifrage ; of clover and the sweet- 

 pea : of the cinquefoil, the strawberry, and the rose. 

 Where externals seem to betoken total unlikeness, 

 if not absolute isolation, presently, on asking of the 

 innermost heart, there dawns upon us the sense of a 

 most exquisite consanguinity. It is the old, old, 

 deathless fable of Proteus over again the "trans- 

 formation" scene which no pantomime can ever 

 compete with. 



While curious, accordingly, that the birch and 

 alder should be so unlike in their intimate likeness, 

 it is curious only in the same sense that a thousand 

 different melodies are all delightful. The variety 

 and the novelty are not the only charm ; that which 

 enchants is the native and inalienable sweetness and 

 feeling, and which holds us as deeply when long 

 familiar as in the beginning. It is a grand secret 

 in the art of estimating things aright, that the best is 



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