UNDER THE APPLE-TREES 



poison-ivy, and the like; but it serves the purpose; 

 the hungry birds are quick to lend a hand. If the 

 plants and vines and trees had minds and could 

 answer our question as to what is passing in them, 

 they would say: "We are thinking how best to per- 

 petuate our species — how to attract the insects to 

 visit the flowers, and thus secure a hardier race by 

 cross-fertilization; how to tempt the birds and four- 

 footed creatures to come and sow our seeds; how to 

 protect these seeds and nuts till they are ripe and 

 ready to pass along the precious heritage of life; 

 hence some of us trust to the winds and the waters 

 to secure fertilization, in which cases we do not need 

 to develop bright or showy flowers, but a super- 

 abundance of pollen; for sowing our seeds, some of us 

 devise wings and balloons; others devise hooks and 

 hands that seize upon passing animals; others make 

 use of the tension of springs and other mechanical 

 devices. We heavy-nut-bearing trees enter into 

 partnership with squirrels and crows and jays; they 

 carry our nuts to distant woods and fields; some 

 they carelessly drop by the way, some they hide 

 under the leaves or in the grass, and we find our 

 account in each. They imwittingly plant more oaks 

 and chestnuts and hickory-trees." 



Nearly all the animal orders below man are 



equally obsessed with the idea of perpetuating their 



species; for this they live, for this they die. It is a 



kind of madness; it leads to all kinds of excesses and 



66 



