Blossom and Seed 191 



quite another matter, as he can take cuttings of some, 

 divide the roots of others, and fetch continual supplies 

 of seed from the ends of the earth, if necessary. But 

 the wild plant has not these resources to fall back upon, 

 and if its race is to continue, it must as a rule be able 

 to perfect its seed, otherwise it will merely thrive for a 

 time, longer or shorter, according as it is an annual 

 or a perennial, and then it will perish without 

 descendants. 



But in very many cases the plant, like Mr. Belt's 

 scarlet-runners already mentioned, is quite unable to 

 perfect seed without the help of what we may call 

 nature's under-gardeners. The plant does much for its 

 offspring ; it collects and stores food, it drains itself 

 of its own life-juices for their benefit, but it cannot 

 always do everything ; and if these under-gardeners 

 were banished from the earth, some plants would 

 speedily vanish also. 



Both blossoming and fruit-bearing are processes more 

 or less exhausting to the plant, for neither flowers nor 

 fruits do much, though they do something, towards 

 feeding themselves. Annuals blossom and bear fruit 

 once and then die entirely, roots and all, their leaves 

 and stems being drained of nourishment by the end of 

 the season. Others, perennials, die down, but their 

 roots remain alive ; and others again, merely shed 

 their exhausted leaves, and grow fresh ones, for several 

 or many seasons in succession. Others again, take 

 more than one season to store food before they venture 

 upon the expense of having blossoms at all ; and others 

 take many years to prepare for this great effort, and 

 when it is at last accomplished, the great end of their 

 lives, they die of mere exhaustion. 



