A DEAD-WATER VIGIL 183 



If she is, it is a curious habit, and being curious let 

 us consider it curiously. She has endowed her trees 

 with life, why then should she not have given them 

 the needed senses to make their lives worth living? 

 And she has done so, if we can believe those ancient 

 writers who have made the subject their study. They 

 say that all vegetals belong to one sex or the other ; 

 that they know what love is, and are as liable as 

 mortals to become the victims of its fury. Claudian, 

 in referring to Cupid's sway in the vegetal kingdom, 

 says : " Trees are influenced by love, and every flour- 

 ishing tree in turn feels the passion. Palms nod 

 mutual vows, poplar sighs to poplar, plane to plane, 

 and alder to alder." The palms, however, seem to be 

 the most susceptible. Constantine says : " You might 

 see two palm trees bend affectionately toward each 

 other and stretch out their boughs for an embrace 

 and a kiss ; " and Galen avows that they " Sometimes 

 become sick for love and pine away and die." 



Now if all this be gospel, why shouldn't a tree have 

 enough instinct to foreknow the coming of a storm ? 

 Indeed, if it had lived long enough, it might have no 

 need of calling on the aid of instinct. Suppose its 

 hoary top had battled with the storms of a hundred 

 years or more, wouldn't the old tree be likely to have 

 a rheumatic limb or two ? Wouldn't it have as good 

 a title to the "rheumatiz" as any that antiquated 

 humanity could boast ? And wouldn't the twinges 



