472 EACES AEE SAID TO WEAR OUT. 



Nimroud seem to show that the same Oak now grows on the 

 mountains of Kurdistan as was known there in the days oi 

 Sardanapalus. There is not the slightest evidence to show 

 that any species of plant has become extinct during the present 

 order of things. All species have continued to propagate 

 themselves by seeds, without losing their specific pecuHaxities ; 

 some appointed law has rendered them and their several 

 natures eternal. 



It would seem moreover that, with the exception of annuals 

 and others of limited existence, the lives of the individual 

 plants born from such seed would be eternal also, if it were 

 not for the many accidents to which they are exposed, and 

 which eventually destroy them. Trees and other plants of a 

 perennial nature are renovated annually — annually receding 

 from the point which was originally formed, and which in the 

 nature of things must perish in time. The condition of theii 

 existence is a perpetual renewal of youth. In the proper sense 

 of the word decrepitude cannot overtake them. The Acorus 

 creeps along the mud, ever advancing from the starting point, 

 renews itself as it advances, and leaves its original stem to die 

 as its new shoots gain vigour; in the course of centuries a 

 single Acorus might creep around the world itself, if it could 

 only find mud in which to root. The Oak annually forms new 

 living matter over that which was previously formed, the seat 

 of Hfe incessantly retreating from the seat of death. When 

 such a tree decays no injury is felt, because the centre which 

 perishes is made good at the circumference, over which new 

 life is perennially distributed. But inevitable accidents inter- 

 fere, and trees are prevented from being immortal. 



Species, then, are eternal; and so would be the indivi- 

 duals sprung from their seeds, if it were not for accidental 

 circumstances. 



No reasonable person now pretends that the species of plants 

 disappear. It is alleged, on the contrary, that seeds renew the 

 languid vigour of a species as often as they are sown ; and thai 

 if an unhealthy plant is multiplied from seeds the immediate 

 offspring becomes healthy. It is also said that multiplicatior 

 by seed is the only natural mode of propagation kiaown among 



