APRIL. 33 



up the venom specially in their seeds. Of this we 

 have a conspicuous instance in the stone-fruit trees, 

 such as the peach, the nectarine, the cherry, and the 

 plum. The kernels of these are in every instance 

 reservoirs of the deadly poison called prussic acid, 

 whence the pungent and very peculiar flavor. Not 

 that the poison is present in such plenty as to be inju- 

 rious to the eater of a few seeds ; but there it is, stored 

 up by the plum for some mysterious purpose which 

 man does not yet understand. What a marvellous 

 number of such secrets are there ! Books upon scien- 

 tific subjects teem with knowledge of every conceiv- 

 able variety, and amazingly minute and accurate, and 

 the author often seems to have exhausted the subject ; 

 yet directly we come into the presence of Nature her- 

 self, we find ourselves lost in perplexities, and with 

 ten thousand more enigmas than atoms of knowledge ; 

 for, compared with the undiscovered, what we do know 

 is only like a few leaves from a great forest. This is 

 one of the great rewards of the student of nature. 

 He discovers very soon that the most learned cannot 

 explain some of the simplest things that surround 

 him ; thus that there are innumerable fields which he 

 can traverse, if he will, as an original explorer, though 

 he may never be able to map them out. It is not 

 necessary that we should acquire this power in order 

 to enjoy as we go along. There is more pleasure in 

 the pursuit than in the acquisition ; and this, we may 



