Chances of Life 281 



large masses of blossom ; yet their seed is almost dust- 

 like. The seed of the lobelia and of the scented 

 tobacco is about equally minute; but from the one 

 springs a plant only a few inches high, with quite small 

 blossoms ; and from the other, one which grows to a 

 height of two or three feet, and has blossoms at least 

 four inches long. 



Then, again, size of seed has nothing at all to do 

 with length of life. The large broad bean has life only 

 for a single season ; the small laburnum-seed has life 

 which lasts for years. The lupin, another leguminous 

 plant, is both an annual and a perennial ; but, strange 

 to say, the perennial lupin bears the smaller seed, 

 though it not only lives longer but is also the taller 

 plant, and produces more blossom of the two. 



An oak may live as many centuries as a bean does 

 months, or more ; but who can say why ? 



The famous chestnut-tree on Mount Etna is said to 

 be 1,000 years old ; and among other ancient trees, 

 whose age is more or less well attested, there is an 

 oak reputed to be 1,600 years old and a walnut of 900; 

 there are olives which are believed to be 2,000 years 

 old ; and there is at least one tree in the East which 

 tradition affirms to be even 6,000 years old ! But, 

 again, why an olive should outlive an oak, who 

 can say ? 



There is a great difference, also, as to the length 

 of time during which the seeds themselves retain their 

 vitality or power of germinating. Most of them look 

 equally lifeless ; but in some this mysterious power 

 lasts much longer than in others, and this, too, with 

 very little reference to their size, though large seeds, 

 especially oily seeds, have some advantage. The seed 



