16 PHENOMENA OF PLANT-LIFE. 



ceeding with the due preparation of its intended 

 seeds, so long will it persist in its efforts, and renew 

 them, striving, till all its vitality is exhausted, to leave 

 if it be only a single voucher of its honest toil. A 

 thousand times have I noticed this wonderful and quiet 

 energy in operation. In the fields some hungry quad- 

 ruped bites off the young green flower-head as a relish 

 to the insipid grass ; no matter, from every joint 

 below, a new shoot is soon put forth ; and in a few 

 weeks, where there would have been, perhaps, no 

 more than a single blossom, there are now a dozen 

 flowers. So in the garden some lily hand crops a 

 flower white as itself, and if the structure of the plant 

 permit, by and by the whiteness gleams from one little 

 side branchlet after another, and in a way that would 

 probably never have happened save for the destruction 

 of the first-born. Applying our knowledge of this 

 principle to the interpretation of the Christmas wall- 

 flowers, it is easy to understand how it happens that 

 their bloom lingers so long. Many a posy, when the 

 days were at their best, was probably made odorous 

 with the early blossoms of this cheerful plant ; these 

 that come in the dull cold days of winter are the proof 

 of the hindered efforts, and a witness to unflinching 

 perseverance in the fair endeavor, a perseverance 

 that may read us all a gentle lesson, strive to the 

 last ; if we fail, we have at least deserved to win. 

 Very different are such flowers as the yellow pile- 



