Having come into a sizable inheritance, Santayana decided to leave his post at Harvard, to the disappointment of students and fellow faculty alike. Concluding his remarks during a final appearance before a large audience, he happened to glance out a window and notice an early-blooming forsythia in a patch of snow.

Santayana immediately stopped speaking, collected his gloves, hat, and walking stick, and began to leave. "Gentlemen," he said, turning in the doorway, "I shall not be able to finish that sentence. I have just discovered that I have an appointment with April."

[A single rye-grass plant, grown as an experiment over a four-month period, put out roots totaling 378 miles in length.]