The strange stiffness of joint and general ungainliness of the elk, however, were matters of such general observation as to apparently have become embodied in the German name eland, sufferer.

The stiffness of the muscles which comes on during severe exercise, or the day after, are familiar results of fatigue.

The artificial stiffness and regularity of the Norfolk Island pine, and the sweet-smelling golden blooms of the Australian wattle, are sights almost as familiar in New Zealand as in their native lands.

Stiffness may be its impossible defect; but it is certainly its only possible merit.