200 THE STOBY OF THE PLANTS. 



sand-banks, and well provided by its shaggy 

 outer coat against the dangers of the sea, the 

 reefs, and the breakers. Similarly, we could 

 never understand the cactus except as a native 

 of the dry plains of Mexico. Or again, there is 

 an orchid in Madagascar with a spur containing 

 honey at a depth of eighteen inches. Now, no 

 European insect could possibly reach so deep a 

 deposit ; but a Madagascar moth has a gigantic 

 proboscis, exactly fitted for sucking the nectary 

 and fertilising the flowers. Thus no plant can 

 properly be understood apart from its native 

 place ; and I have therefore confined myself for 

 the most part in these few brief life-histories to 

 native British plants, whose circumstances and 

 surroundings are known to everybody. 



As an example of a very simple and easy life- 

 history, I will take first a little wayside weed, 

 commonly known as whitlow-grass, but called 

 by botanists, in their scientific Latin, Draba 

 rcrna. This curious little herb is not a grass at 

 all (as its name might make you think), but a 

 member of the great family of the crucifers, 

 succulent plants with four petals and six stamens 

 in each flower, to which the cabbage, the turnip, 

 the sea-kale, and many other well-known garden 

 species belong. But whitlow-grass is not a large 

 and conspicuous plant like any of these ; it is one 

 of the smallest and shortest-lived of our British 

 weeds. It has managed to carve itself out a 

 place in nature on the dry banks and in clefts of 

 rock during the few weeks in spring while such 

 spots are as yet unoccupied by more permanent 

 denizens. The herb starts from a very minute 



