244 THE WONDERS OF VEGETATION. 



pond, unrolling the long flower-stalk, turn after turn, 

 till they also reach the surface. Here they meet the 

 h'rst-comers ; they touch, and immediately begin to 

 retreat once more to their dark homes beneath the wa- 

 ters, where they ripen their seed and provide for new 

 generations. 



We cannot very well leave this part* of our sub- 

 ject without turning our attention to a phenomenon 

 more general and more important than any to which 

 we have yet referred that of the migration of plants. 

 Without this power of spreading abroad and actually 

 moving from place to place we could not enjoy the 

 richness of the natural carpet with which the earth is 

 covered. 



The learned director of the Museum at Rouen, M. 

 Pouchet, shall be our guide here as well as in all 

 questions of general import which require the assist- 

 ance of a practical botanist. " Nothing," he says, " re- 

 veals to us more vividly the splendid resources of nature 

 than the facility with which she covers the whole sur- 

 face of the globe with vegetation and with life. This 

 is attained not merely by the wonderful fecundity 

 with which she endows plants, she employs also the 

 most ingenious and varied processes for transporting 

 her fruits and seeds from one pole to another." 



The vast number of seeds which certain plants 

 bear ensures their continual reproduction ; and upon 

 this point calculation leads occasionally to unexpect- 

 ed results. Hay lias counted 33,000 seeds upon one 

 stalk of poppy and 36,000 upon a single stem of the to- 

 bacco plant. Dodard sets down at even a higher figure 



