232 MISSOURI STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



houses, provide the means of tranportation on land and water, besides 

 ornamenting our grounds and giving constant pleasure during the pe- 

 riod of their growth. 



We have no more striking evidence of contrivance than in the 

 dispersion of vegetable life. Forests of beech wave in the Himalaya 

 at an altitude of fourteen thousand feet. The bottom of the sea is 

 clothed with an endless variety of green, red and purple algce, and the 

 dark caverns of the ocean are green with the enormous frauds of the 

 vine-leaved fucus. This genus is remarkable for the great length of 

 its stems, some of them extending three hundred and fifty feet; it 

 grows very rapidly, forming immense beds, often impeding navigation^ 



Lands of almost endless winter might have abundance of moss- 

 grass and lichen, and even poppies and ranunculus in sheltered spots, 

 while plants may be found in iiot springs at the temperature of boil- 

 ing water, and shrubbery has been known to flourish in the crater of 

 the Yesuvian furnace. 



Vegetable life defies perpetual darkness ; seeds carried by the 

 birds have sprung up in caves where no ray of light could penetrate^ 

 and grown to the height of two or three feet. The entire failure of 

 moisture seems to be the only insurmountable obstacle to the growth 

 of plants. DeCaudolle mentions a plant known as the Rose of Jeri- 

 cho, {Anastatica Hierschuntina\ growing in the arid wastes of Ara- 

 bia and Palestine; it becomes almost woody owing to the drought. Its 

 branches fold over each other till it assumes the form of a ball; its 

 seed vessels are tightly closed, and the plant adheres to the ground by 

 a solitary branchless root, in this condition it is easily swept away by 

 the wind. If it meet with water as it rolls along, the branches unfold,, 

 the pericarps burst and the seed which otherwise could not have ger- 

 minated readily sow themselves in a moist soil where the young plant 

 is able to support itself. 



It is in the torrid zone that vegetation exhibits its greatest variety, 

 most vivid in color, stately in form, and of almost overpowering fra- 

 grance. The central part is celebrated for the abundance and gran- 

 deur of its flora. The same tribes which are the slender and humble 

 plants of northern regions, become lofty trees within the tropics. There 

 the Erethrina or Coral tree grows to a great height, and is covered 

 with brilliant crimson blossoms, while the Mimosa is conspicuous hj> 

 its airy foliage and golden flowers, and beautifies even the wastes of 

 burning Africa. 



Equinoxial America astonishes all beholders with its lofty trees, 

 covered with creeping plants binding all together in a solid mass of 

 verdure and adorned with beautiful flowers, Humboldt says that 



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