218 Wisconsin State Horticultural Society. 



gling for life in crevices and upon branches in the arctic regions, to 

 the towering forests, tangled creepers and brilliant flowers of the 

 tropics, all are brought to life by force acting upon the elements 

 since the time that the earth was cast into the ether fresh from the 

 hand of its Maker. The simple observer of these facts, unaided by 

 chemical knowledge, is lost in the mysteries contained therein, and 

 the elucidation of them to such would be a life-long, and at last, 

 perhaps an impossible task. How is it, then, that plants growing 

 in the same soil, moistened by the same showers, bathed in the 

 same air, and warmed by the rays of the same sun, are so different 

 in their properties and combinations, and develop qualities differing 

 so widely from each other? It is simply force acting upon matter, 

 and is in accordance with fixed laws, emanating from the Creator. 

 The seed is developed into the plant, the plant produces the ripe 

 fruit, the fruit matures the seed, and each of these again may be 

 decomposed into their original elements. Thus the elements, of 

 which the coal measures are formed, the vegetation of the carbon- 

 iferous age long since past, are now just being given up to the use 

 of man, to be converted into light, heat and smoke! What are 

 they? Only another name for coal, and this again for extinct vege- 

 tation, and the latter for that which had preceded it. 



There are five stages in plant life — the germination of the seed 

 below ground; the growth of the plant above ground; the de- 

 velopment of the flower; the maturation of the fruit, and the decay 

 or death of the plant. In the case of annuals, the first four stages 

 are accomplished in a single season. In biennials two are required, 

 and in some of the perennials — as for instance the mighty mon- 

 archs of the forests, as in California and other countries — thou- 

 sands of years are required. Thus from the ephemeral mushroom, 

 and other fungi, which mature their growth and decay in a few 

 days, to some of the aged growths of tropical and semi-tropical 

 forests, an infinite number of generations of the fungi must elapse 

 to make up a generation of the others. Yet the same elements 

 compose one as the other. The mushroom becomes food for grass, 

 the grass for the shrub, the shrub for the tree, and the tree, after it 

 has fulfilled its mission, again becomes food for other vegetation. 

 Nothing is lost, only changed, to work and rework out its task in 

 the economy of nature. 



Seeds kept absolutely dry do not germinate. If kept from con- 



