Ada] AND SYMBOLS. 3 



off the acorns, and buries them in the earth, as a supply of food 

 against the severities of winter. He is most probably not gifted 

 with a memory of sufficient retention to enable him to find ever} r 

 one he secretes, which are thus left in the ground, and springing 

 up the following year, together with others which he accidentally 

 drops, finally grow into magnificent trees. The nut-hatch in 

 an indirect manner also frequently becomes a planter. Having 

 twisted off their boughs a cluster of beech-nuts, this curious bird 

 resorts to some favourite tree, whose bole is uneven, and 

 endeavours, by a series of manoeuvres, to get it into one of the 

 crevices of the bark. During the operation it oftentimes falls 

 accidentally to the ground, and is caused to germinate by the 

 moisture of winter. Many small beeches are found growing 

 near the haunts of the nut-hatch, which have evidently been 

 planted in this accidental manner. Thus, without design on 

 their part, the squirrel and the nut-hatch are most influential 

 planters of the two finest trees of the forest. When we gaze 

 with awe and admiration upon the grandest oak and the most 

 splendid beech in the landscape, we may reflect that those two 

 trees may actually owe their existence to two trifling accidents 

 the one being that of a bird with a nut, and the other being 

 that of a squirrel with an acorn which happened more than a 

 centurv ajo ! no. 



Adaptation a Law of Nature. 



Nothing is more variable than the appearance of the stem in 

 vegetables and trees. The form, size, and direction of the stem 

 are beautifully adapted to the part which each plant has to take 

 in the vast vegetable population which covers and adorns the 

 globe. Plants which require to live in a pure and often renewed 

 air, have a straight stem, either robust or slender, according to 

 their individual habit. Where they require a moist and denser 

 atmosphere, when they have to creep along the ground, or to 

 glide among the brambles, the stems are usually long, flexible, 

 and trailing. If they have to float in the air, supporting them- 

 selves by plants of more robust growth, or to hang suspended 

 from forest trees in graceful festoons and light garlands, they are 

 provided with flexible, slender, and pliant stems, which enable 



