16 PHENOMENA OF PJLANT-LIFE. 



ceeding with the due preparation of^ its intended 

 seeds, so long will it persist in its efforts, and renew 

 them, striving, till all its vitality is exhausted, to leave 

 if it be only a single voucher of its honest toil. A 

 thousand times have I noticed this wonderful and quiet 

 energy in operation. In the fields some hungry quad- 

 ruped bites off the young green flower-head as a relish 

 to the insipid grass ; — no matter, from every joint 

 below, a new shoot is soon put forth ; and in a few 

 weeks, where there would have been, perhaps, no 

 more than a single blossom, there are now a dozen 

 flowers. So in the garden some lily hand crops a 

 flower white as itself, and if the structure of the plant 

 permit, by and by the whiteness gleams from one little 

 side branchlet after another, and in a way that would 

 probably never have happened save for the destruction 

 of the first-born. Applying our knowledge of this 

 principle to the interpretation of the Christmas wall- 

 flowers, it is easy to understand how it happens that * 

 their bloom lingers so long. Many a posy, when the 

 days were at their best, was probably made odorous 

 with the early blossoms of this cheerful plant ; these 

 that come in the dull cold days of winter are the proof 

 of the hindered efforts, and a witness to unflinching 

 perseverance in the fair endeavor, — a perseverance 

 that may read us all a gentle lesson, — strive to the 

 last ; if we fail, we have at least deserved to win. 

 Very different are such flowers as the yellow pile- 



