178 PROSERPINA. 



of shaking off its legs or arms on occasion, coupled 

 also with modes of growth involving occasionally quite 

 astonishing transformations, and beginnings of new life 

 under new circumstances ; so that, until very lately, 

 no mortal knew what a crab was like in its youth, the 

 very existence of the creature, as well as its legs, being 

 jointed, as it were, and made in separate pieces with 

 the narrowest possible thread of connection between 

 them ; and its principal, or stomachic, period of life, 

 connected with its sentimental period by as thin a 

 thread as a wasp's stomach is with its thorax. 



7. Now in plants, as in animals, there are just the 

 same opposed aspects of joint, with this specialty of 

 difference in function, that the animal's limb bends 

 at the joints, but the vegetable limb stiffens. And 

 when the articulation projects, as in the joint of a 

 cane, it means not only that the strength of the 

 plant is well carried through the junction, but is 

 carried farther and more safely than it could be 

 without it : a cane is stronger, and can stand higher 

 that it could otherwise, because of its joints. Also, 

 this structure implies that the plant has a will of its 

 own, and a position which on the whole it will keep, 

 however it may now and then be bent out of it ; and 

 that it has a continual battle, of a healthy and human- 

 like kind, to wage with surrounding elements. 



But the crabby, or insect-like, joint, which you get 



