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Personality of plants

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PERSONALITY OF PLANTS<br />

quests and revolutions quite as stirring as any-<br />

thing in human annals.<br />

If it is absorbing to follow the racial move-<br />

ments <strong>of</strong> man, ancient and modern, it is equally<br />

fascinating for a lover <strong>of</strong> <strong>plants</strong> to investigate<br />

their migratory habits. We have exact records<br />

<strong>of</strong> many <strong>of</strong> their travels and can make interest-<br />

ing conjectures about the rest.<br />

To a layman, the present distribution <strong>of</strong><br />

<strong>plants</strong> may seem chaotic. He reads that cer-<br />

tain families are natives <strong>of</strong> Europe and Aus-<br />

tralia, or North America and Africa and are<br />

absent from all intervening countries. The<br />

Alpine species Primulas and Saxifrages are<br />

common to both the Arctic and the Antarctic.<br />

There are fifty-eight European and New<br />

Zealand species which are identical. The<br />

British Grass Poa Annua is also found in the<br />

Andes <strong>of</strong> Brazil. Through what thousands<br />

<strong>of</strong> years <strong>of</strong> change and evolution have these<br />

things come about! Yet the results are no more<br />

complex than was the filling <strong>of</strong> America with<br />

its mixed and conglomerate human population.<br />

In a general way, there is a measure <strong>of</strong> fixity<br />

to plant distribution. Certain <strong>plants</strong> have eleo<br />

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