THE LIFE OF A PRIMROSE. 169 
gone further, and studied how the fibres and all the 
different vessels of the plant are formed, and a won- 
drous history it would have been. But it was too 
long for one hour's lecture, and you must read it for 
yourselves in booSs on botany. We had to pass on 
to the flower, and learn the use of the covering leaves, 
the gaily coloured crown attracting the insects, the 
dust-bags holding the pollen, the little ovules each 
with the germ of a new plantlet, lying hidden in the 
seed-vessel, waiting for the pollen-grains to grow 
down to them. Lastly, when the pollen crept in at 
the tiny opening we learnt that the ovule had now 
all it wanted to grow into a perfect seed. 
And so we came back to a primrose seed, the point 
from which we started ; and we have a history of our 
primrose from its birth to the day when its leaves 
and flowers wither away and it dies down for the 
winter. 
But what fairies are they which have been at work 
here ? First, the busy little fairy Life in the active 
protoplasm ; and secondly, the sun-waves. We have 
seen that it was by the help of the sunbeams that the 
green granules were made, and the water, carbonic 
acid, and nitrogen worked up into the living plant. 
And in doing this work the sun-waves were caught 
and their strength used up, so that they could no 
longer quiver back into space. But are they gone for 
ever ? So long as the leaves or the stem or the root 
of the plant remain they are gone, but when those are 
destroyed we can get them back again. Take a 
handful of dry withered plants and light them with a 
match, then as the leaves burn and are turned back 
