134 THE MAPLE AND THE SYCAMORE. 



seeds, for these, if carefully cut open when quite or 

 nearly ripe, present one of the prettiest spectacles in 

 the world. Lined with the softest and whitest silk, 

 in the centre lies, doubled up, the rudiment of the 

 future tree ; not a simple mass of albuminous kernel, 

 as in the nut, but a couple of perfectly-formed green 

 leaves, resembling little strips of green ribbon, so 

 folded and involved that to separate them without 

 fracture, is a matter of difficulty. The hinge-like 

 point of union is the actual embryo ; these two green 

 thongs are the cotyledons or " seed-leaves," which 

 parts, in the seed of a plant, occupy the place and 

 fulfil the purpose of the mother's bosom with regard 

 to her infant. As soon as the embryo awakes to 

 active life, these pretty cotyledons, charged with 

 tender food, become the main source of its nourish- 

 ment, and upon these it depends until the growth of 

 the root and ascending plumule enables it to forage 

 in the earth and atmosphere. 



The celebrated Genevese naturalist, Charles Bon- 

 net, was the first to point out this beautiful and 

 expressive analogy ; to-day it is recognised univer- 

 sally that the cotyledons of the seed are the vegetable 

 mammae. So close and striking at every point is 

 the agreement of the idea of the plant with that of 

 human nature ! The question, in truth, is not so 

 much what may be the likeness between man and 

 the trees, but what is the difference between them ! 

 How hard even to speak of a tree except in terms 



