Sla] AND SYMBOLS. 321 



the life-power of the spot on which it grows. They were like 

 that fungus. When the fungus falls in the autumn, it leaves 

 scarcely a trace of its presence, the tree being apparently as 

 healthy as before the advent of the parasite. But the whole 

 character of the wood has been changed by the strange power 

 of the fungus, being soft and cork-like to the touch. Perhaps 

 the parasite may fall in the autumn, and the tree may show 

 no symptoms of decay ; but at the first tempest it may have to 

 encounter, the trunk snaps off at the spot where the fungus 

 has been, and the extent of the injury is at once disclosed. As 

 long as any portion of that tree retains life, it will continue to 

 throw out these destructive fungi ; and even when a mere stump 

 is left in the ground, the fungi will push themselves out in 

 profusion. H. 



The Wounds of the Slanderer. 



The scorpion extends in Europe to the north coasts of the 

 Mediterranean, but is more abundant in Africa, both North and 

 South, where its bite has the singular peculiarity that, although 

 excessively painful on the first occasion of its infliction, and even 

 dangerous to life, the constitution becomes hardened to it, the 

 suffering is less on every subsequent occasion, and at length 

 comes to be little regarded. The slanderer is found in every part 

 of the globe. The wounds which he inflicts upon sensitive natures 

 have been fatal in many instances. But in cases where the 

 victim has been strong enough to endure several of his attacks, 

 it is found that, like the scorpion's bites, they produce no effect; 

 and the slanderer and his venom are even held in derision. 



I. L. 



The Slanderous Character. 



The medusae are so named in consequence of the long fibres 

 which are trailed after them, and which writhe and twist about 

 in the water like the serpent tresses of the mythical Medusa. 

 Some of the tropical species of medusae are so poisonous that if 

 their floating tresses coil round a human being they affect him 

 as if he had been stung from head to foot by a swarm of wasps. 

 In the colder seas of the British shores these formidable beings 



