time no less than 44,000 different plants have been discovered and described in the whole world.  6000 of these are mosses, lichens, funguses and which are also plants whose flowers and fruit are obscure.  Of the remaining 38,000, seven thousand are found in Europe, 6000 in Asia, 3000 in Africa, 5000 in New Holland and 17,000 in America.  And yet a man who is eminent for his knowledge of plants is of the opinion that not half of the specis growing on the earth have yet been discovered and he supposes that there are not less than 100,000 in all.  In the U. States between 4000 and 5000 species have already been described and the number that may be found growing wild in this immediate vicinity is somewhat above 1000.

     Now in order to form some opinion of the immense number of individual plants in the 100,000 species to be found in the world take for example some of the kinds of grass growing in our fields and imagine if you can how many species of it grow upon a single acre.  How many in this whole town- how many in the country