HUTCHINSON'S POPULAR BOTANY 



FIG. 15. THE LEAF BUTTERFLY (Kallima). 



When this butterfly settles upon a twig and closes its wings 



together, it resembles a leaf. 



[S. L. Bastin. 

 Fia. 16. A SOUTH AFBICAN PLANT (Mesembryan- 



themum truncatum), 



This plant resembles a pebble. It is photographed in the midst 

 of five real pebbles to make the likeness clear. 



of a new life ; and while this 

 with its envelopes becomes per- 

 fected into a seed, constant 

 changes in the plant, from below 

 upwards, are in progress. One 

 leaf after another dies and 

 withers. At last only the dry 

 and naked straw-haulm stands 

 there. Bowed down by the 

 burden of the golden gift of 

 Ceres, it breaks up and rots 

 upon the earth, while within 

 the scattered germ, lightly and 

 snugly covered by protecting 

 snow, a new period of develop- 

 ment is preparing, which, be- 

 ginning in the following spring, 

 continues on the unceasing 

 repetition of these processes. 

 Here there is nothing firm, 

 nothing consistent ; an endless 

 becoming and unfolding, and a 

 continual death and destruction, 

 side by side and intergrafted. 

 Such is the Plant ! It has a 

 history, not only of its forma- 

 tion, but also of its existence: 

 not merely of its origin, but of 

 its persistence. We speak of 

 plants ; where are they ? When 

 is a plant perfect, complete, so 

 that we may snatch it out of the 

 continual change of matter and 

 form, and examine it as a thing 

 become ? We speak of shapes 

 and forms ; where shall we 

 grasp them, disappearing 

 Proteus-like every moment and 

 transformed beneath our hands ? 

 ... In every moment is the 

 Plant the ruin of the past, and 

 yet, at the same time, the po- 

 tentially and actually develop- 

 ing germ of the future ; still 



