PO VER T Y AND BANKR UPTC V. 215 



large petals — -as well as in the enormous amount 

 of pollen they form (more than three and a half 

 million grains in each individual), and in the im- 

 mense number of small seeds. Such a drain on 

 the vitality of a plant in so short a period of time 

 as a single summer — such an abstraction of phos- 

 phorous and nitrogen for pollen -grains, and of 

 albuminous material for seeds — would tend to render 

 even a large plant bankrupt. But the Welsh Poppy 

 {Meconopsis cambrica) is '' perennial," although its 

 brilliant yellow petals are nearly as large as the red 

 ones of our field species. 



It is worth our while to observe the unequal 

 duration of the lives of plants collected into the same 

 genus, inasmuch as it must be due to certain habits 

 in the plant's present economy, or is the effect of 

 accumulated habit in the lives of ancestors. Perhaps 

 in a general wa}' it can be best accounted for by 

 some plants being more thrifty than others — that 

 is, they have learned to accumulate more than they 

 expend ; and their excess is laid up underground in 

 a thickened stem, like Raniincithis biUbosiis^ or in 

 root- stalks, rhizomes, and the like. There is even 

 a variation in the brief lives of '' annuals." Some 

 extend through the entire summer ; others shoot up, 

 flower, and seed, all in the space of a few weeks, as 

 if the most important thing in their lives was to die 

 and get out of the way as soon as possible ! 



The size to which the entire plant grows is subject 



