EVERGREEN AND DECIDUOUS TREES, ETC. 
68 
the ultimate end. Not only are we apt to take the pleasure 
twice over, but we often take it three times over, confusing 
together the inclination, the object, and the results of 
the action. The results of my picture or poem, if it be 
good work, will be, let us say, beneficial to society; and 
yet benefit to society was not my object. In short, the 
inclination is always in the direction most pleasurable or least 
painful; the results of the action, if it be a moral one, are 
such as in the long run, and on a large scale, must increase 
happiness; but the object of the action need not be connected 
in the mind of the actor with any thought of happiness, per¬ 
sonal or general. 
Now it is the aim of rational utilitarianism to show, first, 
lioW inclination can be directed to an object not capable of 
gratifying any selfish desire ; and second, how it comes that 
objects sought without any mental reference to general 
welfare are yet correlated with general welfare. Thus the 
way will be smoothed for a reconciliation of egoism, or care 
for self, with altruism, or care for others. I can but very 
briefly trace Mr. Spencer’s solution of these problems. 
(To be continued.) 
THE RELATIONS BETWEEN EVERGREEN AND 
DECIDUOUS TREES AND SHRUBS.* 
BY F. T. MOTT, F.R.G.S. 
leaves 
through 
In the Highlands of Scotland there are four 
native trees which grow together nearly every¬ 
where under similar conditions, of which two 
are evergreen—the Holly and the Scotch Fir, 
and two are deciduous—the Birch and the 
Rowan. What is the physiological difference ? 
Why do the Holly and the Fir retain their 
the winter while the Birch and the Rowan 
drop them in the autumn ? I do not know whether this 
question has ever been fully answered. I have not met with 
any satisfactory reply to it, and I offer the following notes as 
a contribution towards the solution of the problem. 
* This paper originated from a discussion on the subject in Section 
D of the Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society, January 19th, 
1887. 
