Ii8 VIGNETTES FROM NATURE. 



our warrens and wild places, most of the 

 plants are thus more or less protected in one 

 way or another from the attacks of animals. 

 These neglected spots are overgrown with 

 gorse, brambles, nettles, blackthorn, and 

 mullein, as well as with the bitter spurges 

 and the stringy inedible bracken. So, too, 

 while in our meadows we purposely propa- 

 gate tender fodder plants, like grasses and 

 clovers, we find on the margins of our. pas- 

 tures and by our roadsides only protected 

 species, such as thistles, houndstongue, 

 cuckoo-pint, charlock, nettles (once more), 

 and thorn-bushes. The cattle or the rabbits 

 eat down at once all juicy and succulent 

 plants, leaving only these nauseous or prickly 

 kinds, together with such stringy and innutri- 

 tious weeds as chervil, plantain, and burdock. 

 Here we see the mechanism of natural selec- 

 tion at work under our very eyes. 



But the sting certainly does not exhaust 

 the whole philosophy of the nettle. Look, 

 for example, at the stem and leaves. The 



