FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. 



cryptogamia cannot be less than 50,000, and 

 probably considerably exceed that number. 



Here, then, we have somewhat of an approximate 

 idea, at what may be regarded a very low estimate, 

 of the number of species of plants scattered over the 

 face of the earth. It is always best in such calcu- 

 lations to under-estimate rather than over-estimate, 

 and if we feel confidence in asserting that there are 

 not less than 500,000 distinct and different species 

 of vegetable organisms distributed over the globe, 

 including land and water, it is because we feel 

 satisfied that we have good grounds for believing 

 that the number is in excess even of tliat which 

 we have permitted ourselves to affirm. 



Another ."curiosity " is in respect to the relative 

 sizes of plants ; some we know to be very large, and 

 others are very small, what then is the average size .'' 

 It has been calculated, in the animal world, that 

 between the largest living animal known on the one 

 hand, and the smallest which the microscope has 

 revealed, the middle place, between both extremes, 

 is occupied by the common house-fly. If we pursue- 

 a similar plan with plants, and estimate the smallest 

 flowering plant to be the little Duckweed {Lenina 

 minor) ^ and the largest a Eucalyptus tree of 420 

 feet, the intermediate form will be, as respects length, 

 some such an herbaceous plant as a St. John's Wort, 

 about 20 inches high. But if we include, as in the 



