Plant Life. 91 



Look now at the root under ground; it is. no 

 longer plump and full of nutriment, it is shrivelled, 

 tough, and fibrous, no longer fit food for man ; its 

 great store of nutriment has been consumed by its 

 effort at reproduction. It reminds us of the pupa, 

 lying inert and full of nutriment, only to trans- 

 form its accumulated store of food into the beauti- 

 ful imago. 



Like the butterfly, the plant reaches its imago 

 state ; it blossoms, bears seed, and dies. 



The sisal hemp spends ten years elaborating 

 leaves of great size and thickness, until it resem- 

 bles a monster century-plant; then, forsooth, out 

 springs a great flower-stalk from its very heart; 

 this flower-stalk, as thick as a man's arm and 

 twenty feet high, topped with a great crown of 

 bloom, grows in the incredible time of six months ! 

 As might be expected, this mighty effort is fol- 

 lowed by the death of the plant. 



If prevented from blossoming it will continue 

 to grow, and may reach prodigious size. This, 

 too, is true of other plants. 



Prevent the reproductive consummation, and the 

 plant, instead of running its little cycle of growth, 

 reproduction, death, will live on. 



Saved from the tremendous changes and loss 



which accompany the reproductive function even 



in plants, they continue to perform their vegetative 



acts for a longer period. 



.Fruit-trees which bear too young exhaust them- 



