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Show Strength of a Flower. A rock split asunder by a growing tree that has found lodgment in whatj was at first only a small crack is a fa-j miliar sight to most people. The forcq that a tree exerts in accomplishing this feat is tremendous, but relatively It is not equal to that exerted by the Bower that John Burroughs describes in a recent book, "The Breath of Life." One of the most remarkable exhlbli Hons of plnnt force I ever saw was In a western city, where I observed a wild sunflower forcing its way up through ' the asphalt pavement ; the folded and compressed leaves of the plant, like a man's fist, had pushed against the hard but flexible concrete until it bulged up and split, and let the irrepressible plant through. The force exerted must have been many pounds. I think It doubtful if the strongest ;nuii could have pushed his fist through such a resisting medium. Life activities are a kind of explosion, explo-sion, and the slow, continued explosions explo-sions of this growing plant rent Iho pavement as surely as powder would have done. It is doubtful if any cultivated cul-tivated plant could have overcome such odds. It required the force of the untamed, hairy plant of the plains to accomplish the feat. |