Trees, Shrubs and Vines 



Mulberry. — ^A leaf-type is a pretty well-established 

 affair, and one of the standard examples of nature's un- 

 swerving consistency. A dozen maple leaves from all 

 over the world bear the maple mark, despite all diver- 

 gence, and the sub-type of each species is still more in- 

 exorable. This is nature's rule ; but, though she made 

 the rule, she is not going to stick to it unless she chooses, 

 and herein she asserts the glorious prerogative of her 

 sex. Her conduct in making mulberry and sassafras 

 leaves shows one of her rare incertitudes of mind ; we 

 call it a " freak of nature " — a most complacent way of 

 hiding our ignorance of the actually controlling princi- 

 ple in the matter. On the same stem one leaf is entire, 

 another is lobed like a mitten, and another has three 

 lobes. But for a miscellaneous assortment of shapes 

 look at a foreign mulberry, the Tartarian, with a per- 

 fectly reckless display of variety. Having no clew to 

 the mystery, we calmly label it " exception to the rule," 

 virtually giving nature a little slap for inconsistency, 

 and congratulating ourselves that we would not have 

 been caught making such a slip. If we had an inkling 

 of all the profoundest principles of nature, how it 

 would demolish some of those paste-board structures 

 that we proudly call " the sciences" ! It is no unjust 

 depreciation of them, frankly to confess (as the greatest 

 scientists themselves are ready to do) that we are as yet 

 only on the surface of things, in the understanding of 

 nature, and that our present attainments will one day 

 appear as elementary as the three-stringed lyre of the 

 ancient Greeks, compared with a modern orchestra, the 

 alchemy of the Middle Ages, compared with present 



