282 FLASHLIGHTS ON NATURE 



at first to the ancestral form ; and it is fortunate 

 for us that they do so, for it often enables us to 

 perceive underlying relationships which in the 

 adult form escape our notice. Nobody who looked 

 at a furze-bush in its stiff and prickly old age 

 would ever suspect it at first sight of a cousinship 

 with clover. Yet when we consider the trefoil 

 leaves of the seedling, and the shape of the sepa- 

 rate peaflowers in the adult form, we can see for 

 ourselves that the two plants are far closer together 

 than we might be tempted to imagine. Indeed 

 between the little creeping yellow clovers and the 

 aggressive furze or the tall and beautiful laburnum, 

 we can find even now a regular series of con- 

 necting links which show clearly that all alike are 

 slightly divergent descendants of a single common 

 ancestor. 



We may conclude, then, that gorse in every 

 particular lays itself out in life to fight its own 

 battle, and to meet the peculiarities of its special 

 situation by its own exertions. Born a trefoil- 

 bearing plant, unarmed and undefended, it pro- 

 duces spines instead of leaves as soon as its growth 

 exposes it to the attacks of enemies. It defends 

 its buds alike from the attacks of cattle and the 

 assaults of insects ; it wraps them up from the cold 

 in efficient overcoats. It cares for its young and 

 lays up food in its beans on their account ; it 

 scatters its seed upon unoccupied spots where they 

 may stand the best chance of picking up a living. 

 All these acts are analogous to those produced by 

 intelligence in animals ; and though the intelligence 



