in. THE HOSPITALITIES OF NATURE. 45 



margin of the eyelid," yet without moisture the light 

 can favour no growth of fern or moss or lichen, which 

 loves a damp atmosphere ; and without these lowly 

 plants no insect or bird-life can flourish. 



Another inhospitable tree is the pine. Its degree of 

 selfishness varies with the species, some being much 

 more tolerant of alien life than others ; the common 

 larch and the cedar being, perhaps, the least exclusive, 

 and the aurucaria the most. The trunk and branches 

 of the larch are covered from head to foot with tufts 

 and rosettes of hoary lichens, which cling specially to 

 this tree and give it a most venerable appearance ; but 

 the aurucaria surrounds itself with an impenetrable 

 armour of spears and daggers, within whose formidable 

 circle no living thing dare intrude. I once saw a 

 squirrel skipping along a lawn and, suddenly stopping 

 at the foot of a tall, wide-spreading aurucaria, it looked 

 up at the bristling trunk and branches with evident 

 astonishment, as if it had never seen anything of the 

 kind before ; and with an expression of disappointment 

 and fear that was almost human, and certainly was 

 exceedingly comical, it turned away and climbed up a 

 more propitious-looking species of pine near at hand. 

 But whatever may be the case in regard to individual 

 trees, the pine-tribe in its social character is decidedly 

 inhospitable. A pine wood is one of the loneliest 

 scenes in nature, not merely as regards the intrusion of 

 man, but as regards the intrusion of any other living 

 thing. Nothing breaks up its uniformity and monotony. 

 It has none of the rich variety of. life that characterizes 



