SOME PLANT BIOGRAPHIES. 201 



seed, dropped on the soil by the parent plant 

 many months before, and patiently waiting its 

 time to develop till winter frosts are over, and 

 warmer weather and moisture begin to quicken 

 its tiny seed-leaves. As soon as these have 

 opened and used up their very small stock of 

 internal nutriment, the young plant begins to 

 produce on its own account a rosette of little 

 oblong green leaves, pressed close to the ground 

 for warmth and shelter. They eat as they go, 

 and make fresh leaves again out of the absorbed 

 and assimilated material. Direct sunshine falls 

 upon them full front ; and as no other foliage 

 overshadows them or competes in their neigh- 

 bourhood for carbonic acid, they grow apace into 

 a little tuft of spreading leaves, about half an 

 inch long or less, and forming in the mass a 

 rough circle. For about a week or ten days the 

 little mouths go on drinking in carbonic acid as 

 fast as they can, and manufacturing it under the 

 influence of sunlight into starches and proto- 

 plasm. At the did of that time they have 

 collected enough material to send up a slender 

 blossoming stem, about an inch high or more, 

 bearing no leaves, but developing at the top a 

 few tiny flower-buds. These shortly open and 

 display their flowers, very small and incon- 

 spicuous, with four wee white petals, each so 

 deeply cleft that they resemble eight to a casual 

 observer. Inside the petals are six little active 

 stamens ; and inside the stamens again a two- 

 celled ovary. The blossoms are visited and 

 fertilised on warm March mornings by small 

 spring midges, attracted by the petals. They 



