142 :fiSotans 



In the month of August our attention is drawn 

 to this especial point of the plant world as food pur- 

 veyors. The plant has been sap-feeding since Feb- 

 ruary, and not only has attained its full annual 

 development, but has laid up nearly all its stores, 

 and is turning toward the period of rest ; growth is 

 now very slow, except in some late varieties. Fruits 

 have gained their full size, and are now rij^en- 

 ing ; roots are also mature for gathering when it is 

 the root or tuber that is of prime food importance ; 

 the various grain crops, except the late-planted 

 buckwheat, are ready for housing. It is a stu- 

 pendous thought that all of this vegetable material 

 was once mineral, and that in fashion which eludes 

 human analysis and pursuit the mineral has become 

 vegetable in the laboratory of the plant ; then being 

 introduced b}^ eating into the organism of the ani- 

 mal, will by digestion and assimilation become ani- 

 mal ; finally returning to the soil in the process of 

 disintegration, will once more be divided into its 

 mineral portions, to be sent again uj^on its ceaseless 

 circle of growth and decay. 



This thought of these transmutations and changes 

 outdistancing the dreams of alchemy brings by some 

 subtle association the smallest, least-known of plants 

 into mental view — the bacteria " microbes " which 

 were long claimed by zoologists, but have been of late 



