Queer Analogies In Nature

The cocoanut is, in many respects, like the human skull, although it

closely resembles the skull of the monkey. A sponge may be so held as to

remind one of the unfleshed face of the skeleton, and the meat of an

English walnut is almost the exact representation of the brain. Plums

and black cherries resemble the human eyes; almonds, and some other

nuts, resemble the different varieties of the human nose, and an opened

o ster and its shell are a perfect image of the human ear. The shape of

almost any man's body may be found in the various kinds of mammoth

pumpkins. The open hand may be discerned in the form assumed by

scrub-willows and growing celery. The German turnip and the eggplant

resemble the human heart. There are other striking resemblances between

human organs and certain vegetable forms, The forms of many mechanical

contrivances in common use may be traced back to the patterns furnished

by nature. Thus, the hog suggested the plow; the butterfly, the ordinary

hinge; the toadstool, the umbrella; the duck, the ship; the fungous

growth on trees, the bracket. Anyone desirous of proving the oneness of

the earthly system will find the resemblances in nature a most amusing

study.--Scientific American.