CHAP. II The Web of Life 31 



or of the mobile and sensitive leaves of Venus' Fly-Trap ; 

 nowadays, at any rate, insects are attracted to them, 

 captured by them, and used. Let us take only one case, 

 that of the common Bladderwort {Utricularid). Many of 

 the leaflets of this plant, which floats in summer in the 

 marsh pond, are modified into little bladders, so fashioned 

 that minute " water-fleas " — which swarm in every corner of 

 the pool — can readily enter them, but can in no wise get out 

 again. The small entrance is guarded by a valve or door, 

 which opens inwards, but allows no egress. The little crusta- 

 ceans are attracted by some mucilage made by the leaves, or 

 sometimes perhaps by sheer curiosity ; they enter and cannot 

 return ; they die, and their debris is absorbed by the leaf 



Again, in regard to distribution, there are numerous 

 relations between organisms. Spiny fruits like those of 

 Jack-run-the-hedge adhere to animals, and are borne from 

 place to place ; and minute water-plants and animals are 

 carried from one watercourse to another on the muddy' 

 feet of birds. Darwin removed a ball of mud from the 

 leg of a bird, and from it fourscore seeds germinated. Not 

 a bird can fall to the ground and die without sending a 

 throb through a wide circle. 



A conception of these chains or circles of influence 

 is important, not only for the sake of knowledge, but also as 

 a guide in action. Thus, to take only one instance among 

 a hundred, it may seem a far cry from a lady's toilet-table 

 to the African slave-trade, but when we remember the ivory 

 backs of the brushes, and how the slaves are mainly used for 

 transporting the tusks of elephants — a doomed race — from 

 the interior to the coast, the riddle is read, and the respon- 

 sibility is obvious. Over a ploughed field in the summer 

 morning we see the spider-webs in thousands glistening 

 with mist-drops, and this is an emblem of the intricacy of 

 the threads in the web of life — to be seen more and more 

 as our eyes grow clear. Or, is not the face of nature like 

 the surface of a gentle stream, where hundreds of dimpling 

 circles touch and influence one another in an infinite com- 

 plexity of action and reaction beyond the ken of the wisest ? 



