DEVELOPMENT, 19 
for development continues long after the ‘ first 
fair blossoming.’ It is but the beginning of 
perfection; and of all the processes of Nature 
there is none more beautiful than the flowering 
of a Tree. Yet wonder must always be mixed 
with admiration when we think of the opera- 
tions of Nature. Who can define or determine 
the causes which lead to the production of a 
flower? What influence is it that accelerates or 
retards the period of that production? Why is 
it that sometimes, whilst all the necessary con- 
ditions of infloresence appear to be present, there 
is no blossoming, or blossoming is inexplicably 
delayed, or is curiously intermittent? What is 
it that determines the place—subject to so many 
unexplainable changes—at which the blossoming 
shall occur? And lastly—and this indeed com- 
prehends the whole question—what is the mys- 
terious influence which, at a certain period of 
the plant’s history, causes the bringing to one 
or to ten thousand parts of its surface of the 
sweetest forces of Nature—forces which contribute 
to the formation of the floral stem, of its green 
sepals, of its richly coloured or sweetly scented 
