CHAP, ii The Web of Life 31 



or of the mobile and sensitive leaves of Venus' Fly-Trap ; 

 nowadays, at any rate, insects are attracted to them, 

 captured by them, and used. Let us take only one case, 

 that of the common Bladderwort (Utricularia). Many of 

 the leaflets of this plant, which floats in summer in the 

 marsh pond, are modified into little bladders, so fashioned 

 that minute " water-fleas " which swarm in every corner of 

 the pool can readily enter them, but can in no wise get out 

 again. The small entrance is guarded by a valve or door, 

 which opens inwards, but allows no egress. The little crusta- 

 ceans are attracted by some mucilage made by the leaves, or 

 sometimes perhaps by sheer curiosity ; they enter and cannot 

 return ; they die, and their ddbris is absorbed by the leaf. 



Again, in regard to distribution, there are numerous 

 relations between organisms. Spiny fruits like those of 

 Jack-run-the-hedge adhere to animals, and are borne from 

 place to place ; and minute water-plants and animals are 

 carried from one watercourse to another on the muddy 

 feet of birds. Darwin removed a ball of mud from the 

 leg of a bird, and from it fourscore seeds germinated. Not 

 a bird can fall to the ground and die without sending a 

 throb through a wide circle. 



A conception of these chains or circles of influence 

 is important, not only for the sake of knowledge, but also as 

 a guide in action. Thus, to take only one instance among 

 a hundred, it may seem a far cry from a lady's toilet-table 

 to the African slave-trade, but when we remember the ivory 

 backs of the brushes, and how the slaves are mainly used for 

 transporting the tusks of elephants a doomed race from 

 the interior to the coast, the riddle is read, and the respon- 

 sibility is obvious. Over a ploughed field in the summer 

 morning we see the spider-webs in thousands glistening 

 with mist-drops, and this is an emblem of the intricacy of 

 the threads in the web of life to be seen more and more 

 as our eyes grow clear. Or, is not the face of nature like 

 the surface of a gentle stream, where hundreds of dimpling 

 circles touch and influence one another in an infinite com- 

 plexity of action and reaction beyond the ken of the wisest ? 



