A JUNGLE CLEARING 41 



able to defend itself or protect its tissues ; and if 

 I did not now destroy it, which I should assuredly 

 not do, this weed would justify its place as a 

 worthy link in the chain of numberless genera- 

 tions, past and to come. 



More complex, clever, subtle methods of at- 

 tack transcended those of the mere devourer of 

 leaf -tissue, as radically as an inventor of most in- 

 tricate instruments differs from the plodding 

 tiller of the soil. In the center of one leaf, less 

 disfigured than some of its fellows, I perceived 

 four tiny ivory spheres, a dozen of which might 

 rest comfortably within the length of an inch. 

 To my eye they looked quite smooth, although a 

 steady oblique gaze revealed hints of concentric 

 lines. Before the times of Leeuwenhoek I should 

 perhaps have been unable to see more than this, 

 although, as a matter of fact, in those happy-go- 

 lucky days my ancestors would doubtless have 

 trounced me soundly for wasting my time on such 

 useless and ungodly things as butterfly eggs. I 

 thought of the coming night when I should sit 

 and strain with all my might, striving, without 

 the use of my powerful stereos, to separate from 

 translucent mist of gases the denser nucleus of 

 the mighty cosmos in Andromeda. And I alter- 



