72 PHENOMENA OF PLANT-LIFE. 



dismay, but dying without having lived, i. e. 

 without having lived to some good purpose, however 

 slight, so that the best was done that could be. Plants 

 under cultivation are often reluctant to produce blos- 

 soms. Year after year they unfold abundance of green 

 leaves, and as " foliage-plants, " command our admi- 

 ration ; but we are never gratified with the sight of a 

 flower. The plan generally adopted with such plants 

 is to starve them in some way ; checking the exube- 

 rance of growth, alarming them, as it were, with the 

 fear of being destroyed, when they forthwith make 

 efforts to produce flowers, so that they may leave at 

 least a representative of their race. From Mexico 

 was brought, a few years since, a magnificent plant, 

 named, in compliment to a celebrated French Admiral, 

 JBugainvillea. This is so unwilling to blossom, that in 

 our hothouses it often presents no more than a tapes- 

 try of dark-green leaves. The expedient that is said 

 to have answered best in the way of persuasion, is to 

 lay bare the roots, and bring one of the hot water 

 pipes in contact with them, whereby they are in a 

 degree dried up. Then the grand lilac clusters make 

 their appearance, every flower seeming a design in 

 muslin rather than the work of a plant. 



While the physiognomy and general idea of the 

 plant are thus attained as an. antecedent of the fruit, 

 the leaves also acquire their perfection. The young- 

 est leaves are often quite unlike those that come after- 



