PART VI 



THOSE LITTLE WORKSHOPS 



I — The Rising of Sap 



At the end of the last chapter we had just come upon 

 one of the greatest wonders known in Nature. 



All the water that is drawn in by the roots of a tree 

 does not stay there. It passes from the hairs into the 

 root-branches, and then by way of the main root into 

 the trunk. After which it mounts up and up, through 

 tiny channels, till it gets to the lower boughs. 



And it does not stop there. It sends out a side- 

 supply into each bough in turn as it passes ; while still 

 the chief amount goes on, climbing higher and higher, 

 till the top of the tree is reached and every part has 

 had its share. 



Sometimes the sap — as yet in its " crude" or unfinished 

 state — has a long journey. Many of our forest trees 

 are fifty feet, eighty feet, a hundred feet high, and 

 often much more. Trees in other parts of the world, 

 such as the Wellingtonia in America and the Eucalyptus 

 in Australia, rise to a height of two hundred or perhaps 

 even three hundred feet. Yet the supplies of sap rise 

 to the very topmost twigs. 



Think what a marvel this is, this steady upward 

 climb of the raw sap which takes place each springtide 

 in every plant that lives and grows, in each herb, 



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