NATURE'S REALM. 
kind, it is gaining an advantage over those 
plants whose leaves are all devoured as soon as 
they appear, or are so contracted in surface, 
-and made so hard and woody in order to be 
unattractive as food, that they fulfil only half 
their functions. If, by providing a lodging 
* place also, even at some inconvenience to itself, 
169 
a plant can secure the entire services of a de- 
fensive army, it will be safe by night and by 
day. : 
The skeptics admit the benefits to the ants. 
If they admit the benefits to the protectors, they 
must also admit the benefit to the protected. 
ODE TO THE LAUREL. 
By M. B. M. Toranp. 
Thou emblem of eternity ! 
Born from thy aged trunk, all gnarled and sere, 
Arise thy scions from the parent tree, 
And clothed in verdant foliage, appear 
Like sacred monuments to Grecian age. 
As Spartan sons sprung from heroic sire, 
Proud of his fame enrolled on glory’s page, 
To higher deeds of chivalry aspire, 
‘So they in youthful strength arise, expand, 
Though parent root be crumbling to decay, 
And in hereditary beauty stand, 
As thou didst stand in springtime of thy day. 
‘Time will roll on; gray moss and lichens grow 
Where now thy shrunken, wrinkled form appears, 
And they that stately stand, be bowed as low, 
Be weather-shattered, wasted, worn and old, 
Yet shall not wholly die; their germs will be 
Renewed, uprising from incrusted mould, 
‘Immortal type of immortality. 
Italian myrtle wreathed in chaplets green, 
The ardent votaries of love may wear, 
And worship Aphrodite, beauty’s queen, 
Their homage oft rewarded with despair. 
Let festive roses blush when zephyrs kiss, 
And wantonly to all their fragrance yield 
‘That seek the unrestrained ambrosial bliss, 
Nor heed the thorns among the sweets concealed. 
Let purple grape with leaflets of the vine 
The orgies wild of Dionysus crown ; 
Let garlands gay the fevered brow entwine 
When maddening joy their sodden senses drown. 
Love, pleasure, revelry, will pass away, 
In long oblivion lost and withered lie ; 
All chaplets save thy own, immortal bay ! 
The wearer of thy crown shall never die, 
