coville] now THE PLANTS WAKE UP 147 



swells until it almost biirsts. Indeed, it actually would burst if it 

 didn't have a very strong wall about it. A pollen grain of Indian 

 com swells up and explodes if it can get a particle of pure water to 

 drink. Try it, under a microscope. 



"Well, the more the sugar develops the more we want to swell, 

 until we get up a pressure inside greater than that of a steam 

 engine. To tell it in words only a little different, we want to grow. 

 We're crazy about it. We simply must grow; and that is why, 

 when the least bit of warm weather comes, in spring, you find us 

 bursting into bloom. 



"Next Indian summer, cut some pussy willow twigs, or some 

 alders, or some cherry branches, and bring them into a warm room, 

 with water to drink. They won't bloom. Then try it a month 

 later, and another, and another month, and you'll see what happens. 

 Just try it. Do. 



"Did you hear about the apple tree that was planted in Panama? 

 It grew at a furious rate for about six months. Then it got sleepy 

 and waited for the cold, but the cold never came and the tree never 

 really woke up again. It grew a little at times but never vigor- 

 ously, and finally it died. 



"We northern plants cannot live without our yearly chilling." 



As the boys went home to lunch the older one said "Perhaps it's 

 the same way with people. Don't you remember how tired we 

 were that year we stayed in the Canal Zone, and how we braced up 

 in two months of cold weather after we came back? I wonder if 

 we northern people don't need some cold weather just like the 

 plants." 



And the smaller boy said, "I wonder." 



The Twin-Flower 



W. p. A. 



Wonderful flower in hue and form! 



Thy dainty bells, — a pair 

 Of dangling spice-cups in the warm 



Sweet, mellow summer air. 



No opulent and flaming bloom 

 That lights the tropic wild 



Has charm for man, like thy perfume 

 Thou flawless mountain child. 



Enchanted with a glad surprise 

 His eye looks down on thee, 



Smiling beneath the clear, cool skies 

 In shade of Northern tree. 



