344 THE ASCENT OF MAN 



That care for others, from which the Mammalia 

 take their name, though reaching its highest ex- 

 pression there, is introduced into Nature in cruder 

 forms almost from the dawn of life. In the vege- 

 table kingdom, from the motherlessness of the 

 early Cryptogams, we rise to find a first maternity 

 foreshadowed in the flowering tree. It elaborates 

 a seed or nut or fruit with infinite precaution, 

 surrounding the embryo with coat after coat of 

 protective substance, and storing around it the 

 richest foods for its future use. And rudimentary 

 though the manifestation be, when we remember 

 that this is not an incident in the tree's life but 

 its whole blossom and crown, it is impossible 

 but to think of this solicitude and Motherhood 

 together. So exalted in the tree's life is this pro- 

 vision for others that the Botanist, like the Zoo- 

 logist, places the mothering plants at the top of 

 his department of Nature. His highest division 

 is the Phanerogams — named, literally, in terms of 

 their reproductive specialization. 



Crossing into the animal kingdom we observe 

 the same motherless beginning, the same cared-for 

 end. All elementary animals are orphans ; they 

 know neither home nor care ; the earth is their 

 only mother or the inhospitable sea ; they waken 

 to isolation, to apathy, to the attentions only of 



