70 



DOMESTIC BOTANY. 



tions are again reproduced, especially in succulent plants 

 and cycas. A remarkable instance is known of long 

 quiescence in a large Echinocactus, which by accident 

 lost its centre growth, and after nineteen years, without 

 apparent change, put forth young plants round the injured 

 centre ; also a plant of Geranium Biwmanni, after re- 

 maining four years almost in a dry state, again put forth 

 leaves ; and specimens of Leicesia rediviva, after being 

 two years in the herbarium, have been planted and have 

 produced flowers. 



Although many plants are dependent on others for 

 their habitation, they nevertheless pay no respect to one 

 another; the plebeian groundsel and humble daisy being 

 in themselves as consequential in the position nature has 

 assigned them as the princely palm and mighty gum 

 tree. As with man and animals, they war each against 

 their neighbour ; the strong takes possession of the do- 

 main of the weak, or the weak by degrees overcomes the 

 strong; the slow but sure ivy weaving the winding-sheet 

 of the mighty oak ; while the more humble but insi- 

 dious white clover, knot and couch grass, dandelion, and 

 other European weed plants, displace others which seem 

 more powerful than themselves, as now witnessed in New 

 Zealand, South Africa, and New South Wales. 



Nature has furnished plants with the means of increas- 

 ing and multiplying by producing superabundance of seed, 

 which, falling on " good ground," and being left unmo- 

 lested, produces its hundred-fold. This combined with the 

 tenacity of life possessed by many plants assists in main- 

 taining their position on the earth, so that if left unmo- 

 lested they assiduously perform the duties assigned to them 

 according to nature, living their appointed time, some only 

 for a few hours (as in many cryptogams), and others hun- 



