Page:Aesthetic Papers.djvu/239

Rh are the expedients to which nature resorts to produce this end. The seeds of lofty trees are often furnished with wings; and, by the aid of the autumnal winds, they are borne to a great distance. Sometimes birds are employed as the carriers of seeds; and they transport them with amazing rapidity. Nuttall tells us that &quot;pigeons killed near the city of New York have been found with their crops full of rice collected in the plantations of Georgia or Carolina.&quot; The parasitical misletoe, the once-sacred emblem of the Druids, bears a small white berry of an extremely viscid pulp. The birds, who are fond of this fruit, are apt to encumber their bills with the glutinous substance; and, to clean them, they rub them upon the branches of trees where they happen to alight, thus depositing the seeds in the very place where nature intended they should grow.

It is perhaps proper to observe, that the misletoe is a parasitical plant that grows in Europe and the Southern States. It attaches itself to the oak, the apple, the maple, the ash,—indeed, to most deciduous trees,—and grows upon them, a suspended bush of evergreen, altogether unique in its appearance. It sustains itself by drinking the sap of its supporter.

The oak, the walnut, the chestnut, and some other trees, produce ponderous seeds, too large for distribution by the feathered tribes. But a kind and watchful Providence has not been unmindful of their dispersion and deposition in spots favorable to their future growth. These trees are the favorite haunts of the squirrel; and to his charge is committed the planting of future forests of these varieties; among whose branches his own race may build their soft abodes, lick the morning dew, and pursue their innocent gambols, and finally provide for man a rich material for his industry and enterprise.

As a gentleman was one day walking in the woods, his attention was diverted by a squirrel, which sat very composedly on the ground. He stopped to observe his motions; in a few minutes the squirrel darted to the top of a noble oak, beneath which he was sitting. In an instant he was down with an acorn in his mouth; and, after finding a soft