THE EVOLUTION OF A MOTHER. 269 



but to think of this solicitude and Motherhood to- 

 gether. So exalted in the tree's life is this provision 

 for others that the Botanist, like the Zoologist, places 

 the mothering plants at the top of his department of 

 Nature. His highest division is the Phanerogams 

 — named, literally, in terms of their reproductive 

 specialization. 



Crossing into the animal kingdom we observe the 

 same motherless beginning, the same cared-for end. 

 All elementary animals are orphans; they know 

 neither home nor care ; the earth is their only mother 

 or the inhospitable sea; they waken to isolation, to 

 apathy, to the attentions only of those who seek their 

 doom. But as we draw nearer the apex of the animal 

 kingdom, the spectacle of a protective Maternity 

 looms into view. At what precise point it begins it 

 is difficult to say. But that it does not begin at once, 

 that there is a long and gradual Evolution of Mater- 

 nity, is clear. From casual observation, and from pop- 

 ular books, it might be inferred that care of offspring 

 — we cannot yet speak of affection — is characteristic 

 of the whole field of Nature. On the contrary, it is. 

 doubtful whether in the Invertebrate half of Nature it 

 exists at all. If it does it is very rare ; and in the 

 Vertebrates it is met with only exceptionally till we 

 reach the two highest classes. What does exist, and 

 sometimes in marvellous perfection, is care for eggs / 

 but that is a wholly different thing, both in its phys- 

 ical and psychical aspect, from love of offspring. The 

 truth is Nature so made animals in the early days 

 that they did not need Mothers. The moment they 

 were born they looked after themselves, and were per- 

 fectly able to look after themselves. Mothers in these 



