April 13, I S 



SCIENTIFIC NE^A^S. 



541 



seed, as to the place of the plant in the botanical system. 

 Further, they give information useful to the physiologist 

 bent upon verifying an induction. But the child of 

 nature turns a deaf ear; all this is nothing to him. 

 Meanwhile a second teacher comes by, and shows how 

 the seed grows, and how its tissues are fashioned out of 

 simpler parts. We learn from him the laws of plant- 

 development, as well as points of useful comparison 

 between the flower and widely different organisms. Then 

 some spark of interest is kindled ; but still the born 

 naturalist, whose devotion is an instinct rather than a 

 form of intellectual curiosity, is only moderately roused. 

 Last of all comes an interpreter of nature, to whom 

 plants are neither material for glossaries, nor texts for 

 parables, but creatures alive and busy, each the centre 

 of its own little world. Darwin or Lubbock takes us by 

 the hand, and at once we begin to sympathise. The seeds 

 are no longer hard, round particles, but a brood of 



is only a hard seed, which he will soon drop in disgust, 

 but only after it has got well away from the spot where 

 it grew. Even the winds are pressed into the service, 

 and made to scatter the plumed seed of the dandelion or 

 the winged seed of the pine. At length we realise that 

 the plant is no dead, passive, and unalterable product of 

 extinct forces, but a regenerative and plastic will, shaping 

 new weapons for every new crisis, and taking advantage 

 of every fresh opportunity by means of organs adapted 

 from such materials as may chance to be ready at hand. 

 In these studies the lover of nature can at length find 

 satisfaction. The correct use of technical words gave 

 him no pleasure ; analysis could not still his longings ; 

 the joy which he sought was such as an enthusiast of 

 another kind draws from pictures or music. When he 

 finds repose, it is because he " sees into the life of 

 things," and shares the sensations of that creative mind 

 whose thoughts are the phenomena of mankind. 



..-d 



Fig. 4. 



Fig. 3. 



Canigou and Treize Vents, in the Pyrenees, as seen from Marseilles. Fig. i, on February lo, 1888 ; Fig. 2, on February II, at 

 5-20 p.m. ; Fig. 3, on February 11, at 525 p.m. ; Fig. 4, on February 11, at 5'4S p.m. 



young ones. The plants are no longer mere mem- 

 bers of certain natural orders, but far-away cousins, 

 leading a fife so unlike ours that it is hard to put our- 

 selves in their place, but so like ours that only in this 

 way can we truly understand a single detail of their 

 structure. We are made to see how a tough and glossy 

 skin may be a protection against drought; prickles a 

 defence against browsing cattle ; weels of hairs a defence 

 against ants ; scent and gay colours a fascination for 

 bees ; hooked fruits a means of transport by unwilling 

 animals. We read, not without surprise at our former 

 blindness, the open secrets of nature. We see one 

 plant scattering its seed by explosion; another by 

 triggers which release suddenly a slowly-accumulated 

 strain ; a third, by imitative arts, tempting the greedy 

 bird to carry ofi what looks hke a tasty beetle, while it 



THE PYRENEES SEEN FROM 

 MARSEILLES. 



T N connection with the phenomena of the mirage which 

 we have recently been considering, we may examine 

 the occasional visibility of mountains, spires, etc., from 

 points at which they are ordinarily hidden by the curvature 

 of the surface of the globe. Of this a striking instance is 

 given in La Nature, from which we borrow the accompany- 

 ing illustrations. The geometrical extent of vision, that is, 

 the semi-diameter of the circle enclosing that portion of 

 the earth's surface visible from a given point, measures 

 11,602 feet at the height of 39 inches above the sea-level. 

 At the height of 32! feet the range of sight extends to 6| 

 miles ; and so on at greater elevations. From the 

 summit of the Eiffel Tower at the Paris Exhibition, the 



