RESPIRATION i 
of an inch. These holes are sometimes, but quite 
wrongly, called little mouths, and we had better under- 
stand clearly that their proper name is “ pore.” It is 
through them that the air gets inside the plant’s body. 
I should be afraid to say how many there are on a 
single leaf of the snowdrop, but it is quite certain that 
we could not possibly count them one by one on the 
two leaves which the bulb produces annually unless we 
devoted an eight-hours’ day to it for days together 
at the rate of a hundred per minute. 
We see, then, that as regards the first Factor of 
Life there is a very pronounced agreement between 
plants and ourselves. In order to remain alive we 
both admit air into our body, for breathing purposes, 
through holes ; in ourselves we call them our nostrils, 
and in the plant “ pores.”’ 
Breathing was the first thing done, after birth, 
by all the people and all the animals and all the plants 
that have ever lived in this world, and all of us go on 
doing it throughout the whole of life. 
Now, breathing is one of the things that use up the 
body, and I need hardly remind the reader that a 
dwindling body is not exactly one’s idea of physical 
fitness. In childhood it has to be built up until it is 
full grown, and then it must be kept the proper size ; 
but, on the other hand, it is always being worn away 
in the process of respiration. Whether we are enjoying 
a good sound restful sleep or taking a brisk walk, 
we wake up or we come home hungry, and this is 
Nature’s danger signal. It means that our life- 
substance must be built up again if we are to retain 
our health and vigour, and the way to do this is, of 
course, to take food. 
