MOORLAND IDYLLS. 



remember how absolutely fixed and limited 

 are plants, each rooted to the soil in a 

 single small spot, each tied by strict con- 

 ditions of rock, and water-supply,' and air, 

 and wind, and sun, and climate, from which 

 none can escape, try they all their hardest. 

 The opposite sides of a road are to them 

 as the two poles, one with a sunny and 

 southward-looking bank, the other with a 

 cold and forbidding northern aspect ; so that 

 what flourishes apace on the first would 

 shiver and die of chill winds on the second. 

 Remember, too, that, save in the mildest 

 degree, plants have no power of spontaneous 

 or independent movement ; they cannot stir 

 from their birthplace, were it but for a 

 single inch, nor move their own limbs save 

 as the wind may sway them. Creatures 

 thus narrowly and inevitably bound down 

 must needs take advantage of the power 

 of movement in all other kinds, wherever 

 it will benefit them. Hence the use plants 

 make of insects as common carriers of 

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