Part III.] OR POISONED BY VEGETABLE GROWTH? 
175 
other asocial plants clear their roots of their 
own poisonous excretions. But these are cases 
of ephemeral or annual illicit love in a state of 
civilisation, where it is notorious that the course 
of this passion never did run smooth. In a state 
of nature, where it does not stand upon consent 
of friends, the holly and the beech are a pair, 
and are supposed to have a mutual perennial 
affection one for the other. This is from the 
holly bearing shade better than other plants. 
Under very dense beech woods holly will grow 
even where the seedlings of the beech themselves 
cannot exist. “ Densas” is Virgil’s epithet for 
beeches, and they will grow nearer to each other, 
and produce a more intense shade, than perhaps 
any other tree in nature ; so that sometimes the 
silver supports of the green canopy stand with¬ 
out a leaf to interfere with their beauty. Cold, 
smooth-barked trees, like beech, drip from con¬ 
densation much more than others. Yet I know 
not why the pure water of heaven, when con¬ 
densed by such an alembic, should not nourish 
rather than destroy the growth it falls on. 
If drip is poisonous, as is commonly believed, it 
should choke, not feed, Roget’s circle of capil¬ 
lary stomata; and I cannot attribute the dele¬ 
terious quality of the over-growth of beech to 
Sociability of 
holly and beech 
owing to holly 
bearing shade 
better than 
other plants. 
