STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 215 



of his application or its effects. Water is sometimes taken up by the 

 leaves as well as the roots, and a sprinkling of the wilted leaves often 

 revives a drooping plant very much sooner than the same effect could be 

 obtained by an application to the roots alone. Carbon, so essential to 

 plant growth, is insoluble in water, and cannot be taken up by the plant 

 in however minute particles, and can only be appropriated through the 

 leaves, in the form of carbonic acid gas. This gas, so destructive to ani- 

 mal life, when taken into the lungs, is innocent and very agreeable when 

 taken into the stomach from the sparkling soda fount, or agreeable mug 

 of cider. 



The animal moves about in search of food ; not so the plant. Every 

 breeze that stirs the foliage brings the new supplies of the necessary com-- 

 binations for its growth and maturity, and the ripening of its fruits. Stag- 

 nant ponds are truitful sources of malaria, but in these we find the ])ond 

 lily and similar aquatic plants, that absorb and feed upon that vitiating 

 product, thus rendering the air more pure in the vicinity. 



The elements composing the framework, as well as the general com- 

 position of the entire vegetable structure, are the same, whether it be the 

 forest tree or the border flower, only in different proportions and quanti- 

 ties. Did space permit to explore it, without being tedious, a rich field 

 is open to our investigation in the food stored up in the various nuts and 

 seeds for the nutriment of the embryo plant ; and a counterpart is found 

 ill the yolk of the egg, retained in the body of the young chicken for its 

 nutriment until it can pick its own food. So the embryo plant is fed by 

 the nutriment furnished by the parent until its organs are developed, as in 

 the young chicken, to gather its own food from the earth and air. 



Thus we find that life is known to our senses by its effects, though 

 science, in its best discoveries, cannot inform us what it is. The most 

 casual observer will find an astonishing similarity in the anatomy, physi- 

 ology, constitution, etc., of the vegetable and animal creation — each hav- 

 ing organs of respiration, digestion, assimilation, circulation, motion, heat, 

 and a still more obtuse but equally important characteristic, that both 

 work and are endowed with a healthful organism under the influence of 

 light alone. The solar ray that colors the crimson petals of the dahlia or 

 the rose, supplies the carmine to the blood. In plants, as in animals, 

 when the material is brought to the proper place, growth takes place, or 

 waste of the organism is renewed. IBoth present remarkable instances of 

 the power of reproduction, though this is more marked in plants than in 

 animals. In a great majority of cases, a single bud is possessed of all the 

 organs that are necessary and requisite for the reproduction of an entire 

 and perfect individual. Some insects have the reproductive power to such 

 a degree as to reijroduce a fang, or even leg, when accident deprives them 

 of so useful a member. 



Living, growing vegetation, as before stated, will feed on impure air, 

 decomposing animator decayed vegetable matter, changing them by their 

 peculiar functions, again to make a part of the animal organization ; also 

 various forms of mineral matter are taken, and prepared and endued with 



