THE PERSONALITY OF TREES 307 



from ever passing the bouiidary line between land 

 and water, yet many sea-worms, as for example 

 the teredo, or ship-worm, are especially fash- 

 ioned for living in and perhaps feeding on wood, 

 in the shape of stray floating trees and branches, 

 the bottoms of ships, and piles of wharves. Of 

 course the two latter are supplied by man, but 

 even before his time, floating trees at sea must 

 have been plentiful enough to supply homes for 

 the whole tribe of these creatures, unless they 

 made their burrows in coral or shells. 



The insects whose very existence, in some cases, 

 depends upon trees, are innumerable. What, for 

 example, would become of the larvae of the cicada, 

 or locust, which, in the cold and darkness of their 

 subterranean life, for seventeen years suck the 

 juicy roots of trees; or the caterpillars of the 

 moths, spinning high their webs among the leaves ; 

 or the countless beetles whose grubs bore through 

 and through the trunk their sinuous, sawdusty 

 tunnels; or the ichneumon fly, which with an 

 instrument surgical needle, file, augur, and scroll 

 saw all in one deposits, deep below the bark, its 

 eggs in safety ? If forced to compete with terres- 

 trial species, the tree spiders and scorpions would 

 quickly become exterminated; while especially 

 adapted arboreal ants would instantly disappear. 



We cannot entirely exclude even fishes from our 

 list; as the absence of mangroves would inci- 

 dentally affect the climbing perch and catfishes! 



