Chances of Lif*e 241 



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 

 ten hundred years old; and among other ancient trees, 

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

 reputed to be sixteen hundred years old and a walnut of 

 nine hundred; there are olives which are believed to be 

 two thousand years old; and there is at least one tree in 

 the East which tradition affirms to be even six thousand 

 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 vital- 

 ity 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 refer- 

 ence to their size, though large seeds, especially oily 

 seeds, have some advantage. The seed of the coffee- 

 berry, for instance, is worthless unless planted without 

 delay directly it is ripe; and willow-seed is said to live 

 only a fortnight after ripening, or less if it is allowed to 

 become dry. Seeds of melon and geranium, on the other 



