THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 43iJ 



Then the recluse having disappeared in the course of years, 

 nature took up the work again, and ingeniojisly preserved 

 the oratory by covering it with thick woody layers. 



During the siege of Toulon a ball from the English 

 fleet entered deep into the stem of a pine standing near 

 the town. The wound is uoav invisible. Should this tradi- 

 tion be lost, how astonished would any one be, on cutting 

 down the tree, to find this enormous mass of iron ! 



Generally the denser plants are the slower is their 

 growth; on the contrary, the softer their tissues the more 

 rapidly are they developed. 



Certain plants astonish us in this respect, and there 

 are even some, the vital energy of which is so active, 

 that we can in some measiu-e pry into the secrets of their 

 evolution ; accordingly Cavanilles conceived the idea of 

 seeing the plant grow. For this purpose he directed 

 strong glasses, furnished with a horizontal micrometric 

 thread, upon the end of the stem of certain plants, just 

 as astronomers do when they place the cross-thread of the 

 telescope athwart a star of which they want to ascertain 

 the movement. The Spanish botanist made his observa- 

 tions principally on agaves and bamboos. With the latter 

 the experiments might yield very clear results, as they 

 grow Avith such rapidity that we sometimes see them attain 

 the heidit of a three-storied house in a month. 



A bamboo, which grew a few years ago in one of the 

 greenhouses of the Jardin des Plantes at Paris, lengthened 

 out its stem at the rate of fifteen centimetres (about five 

 inches and four-fifths) daily, so that it could easily have 

 been seen growing, as its upAvard movement Avas as quick 

 as that of the large hand of a timepiece. 



But a still more extraordinary fact is noticed Avith re- 

 spect to certain Fungi, and it may be said of them, Avithout 



