LETTER VII. 



NUT-TKEE — NUT-WEEVIL — WHAT IS PROPERTY? 



The ardoTir of the sun drives us to the friendly shade of the 

 trees; and here, on the -verge of the thicket, is a nut-tree 

 which arrests our steps for a few minutes. 



' I have told you, my friend, of the little nymphs to whom 

 roses and other flowers are as a grotto or a nuptial bed, 

 wherein their loves are concealed by rich purple curtains. 

 AH do not enjoy the same facilities ; all do not find their 

 lover and their husband in the same chalice, under the same 

 leaves ; it is evident that roses, and a vast number of other 

 flowers which thus unite the two sexes in the same corolla, 

 are like the GuSbres, who contracted marriages among bro- 

 thers and sisters ; if you were travelling that way, you would 

 be mighty proud to meet with some rude monument which 

 might recal the memory of this now forgotten usage. 



The nut-tree is not thus constituted ; the male and female 

 flowers are not united in one corolla, but they are both bom 



