236 PROSEUPINA. 



place entirely to fit the plant to the service of ani- 

 mals.* 



In its perfection, the Fruit Gift is limited to a tem- 

 perate zone, of which the polar limit is marked by the 

 strawberry, and the equatorial by the orange. The more 

 arctic regions produce even the smallest kinds of fruit 

 with difficulty ; and the more equatorial, in coarse, 

 oleaginous, or over-luscious masses. 



15. All the most perfect fruits are developed from 

 exquisite for jns either of foliage or flower. The vine 

 leaf, in its generally decorative power, is the most im- 

 portant, both in life and in art, of all that shade the hab- 

 itations of men. The olive leaf is, without any rival, 

 the most beautiful of the leaves of timber trees ; and its 

 blossom, though minute, of extreme beauty. The apple 

 is essentially the fruit of the rose, and the peach of her 

 only rival in her own colour. The cherry and orange 

 blossom are the two types of floral snow. 



16. And, lastly, let my readers be assured, the econ- 

 omy of blossom and fruit, with the distribution of water, 



* A most singular sign of this function is given to the chemistry of 

 the changes, according to a French botanist, to whose carefully and 

 richly illustrated volume I shall in future often refer my readers, 

 " Versl'epoquede la maturite, les fruits exhalent de Vacide cafbonique. 

 Us ne presentent plus des lors aucun degagement d'osygene pen- 

 dant le jour, et respirent, pourainsi dire, d la fagon des animaux." 

 (Figuier, ' Histoire des Plantes,' p. 182. 8vo. Paris. Hachette, 

 1874) 



