§ 2. A child's division of plants is into "trees and flowers." If,
however, we were to take him in spring, after he had gathered his lapful
of daisies, from the lawn into the orchard, and ask him how he would
call those wreaths of richer floret, whose frail petals tossed their
foam of promise between him and the sky, he would at once see the need
of some intermediate name, and call them, perhaps, "tree-flowers." If,
then, we took him to a birch-wood, and showed him that catkins were
flowers, as well as cherry-blossoms, he might, with a little help, reach
so far as to divide all flowers into two classes; one, those that grew
on ground; and another, those that grew on trees. The botanist might
smile at such a division; but an artist would not. To him, as the child,
there is something specific and distinctive in those rough trunks that
carry the higher flowers. To him, it makes the main difference between
one plant and another, whether it is to tell as a light upon the ground,
or as a shade upon the sky. And if, after this, we asked for a little
help from the botanist, and he were to lead us, leaving the blossoms, to
look more carefully at leaves and buds, we should find ourselves able in
some sort to justify, even to him, our childish classification. For our
present purposes, justifiable or not, it is the most suggestive and
convenient. Plants are, indeed, broadly referable to two great classes.
The first we may, perhaps, not inexpediently call TENTED PLANTS. They
live in encampments, on the ground, as lilies; or on surfaces of rock,
or stems of other plants, as lichens and mosses. They live--some for a
year, some for many years, some for myriads of years; but, perishing,
they pass as the tented Arab passes; they leave _no memorials of
themselves_, except the seed, or bulb, or root which is to perpetuate
the race.
§ 3. The other great class of plants we may perhaps best call BUILDING
PLANTS. These will not live on the ground, but eagerly raise edifices
above it. Each works hard with solemn forethought all its life.
Perishing, it leaves its work in the form which will be most useful to
its successors--its own monument, and their inheritance. These
architectural edifices we call "Trees."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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