THINGS GREEN AND FAIR 19 



put an end to the life of the plant. Just as the roots 

 drink in water and food from the soil, so the leaves 

 drink in food from the air. 



But they do not only drink it in. They also work 

 up and alter that which they have received, together 

 with that which the roots have sucked up; and they 

 make it fit for food. Food, first, for the plant itself; 

 and then food for animals and men. Leaves are the 

 most wonderful little workshops, doing what nothing 

 and nobody else in the wide world is able to do. 

 Without the help of leaves, no plants could live or 

 grow : and so no human beings could live or grow 

 either. 



Fourthly and lastly — the Flowers. These, too, are 

 little workshops, different in kind. They are the seed- 

 growers. 



You no doubt look upon flowers as by far the most 

 important part of a plant, because of their beauty. 

 But they have this other use, and a very weighty use. 

 One chief work of a plant must always be to bring 

 forth fruits and seeds, from which new plants may grow. 



If no fruits, no seeds, were brought into being, it 

 would soon mean an end of most of the vegetable-life 

 on earth. In time we should have no more herbage, 

 no more trees, no more grasses, no more corn or grain 

 of any kind. All the old plants would die ; and no new 

 ones would come to take their place. The world would 

 change into a vast rocky and sandy and pebbly desert, 

 where neither animals nor men could live. 



Yet, while this is the special work of flowers, and 

 perhaps their most important work, we need not suppose 



