144 3iSotani2 



and place. Heat destroys them — yet they survive 

 cooking ; cold destroys them, yet they flourish in a 

 block of ice, and are exuberant over a heavy freeze. 

 These vegetaljle atoms disport themselves like ani- 

 mals ; in water they swim like fishes and dive like 

 little boys, and whirl and antic until one would fancy 

 they must be guided by instincts or intentions. There 

 is probably no breath of air, no fruit, no vegetable, 

 no inch of soil free from some of the countless hosts 

 of these bacteria. If they were necessarily de- 

 structive of human life the human race would have 

 perished long ago. On the contrary, by grace of 

 bacteria some of our most important food stuffs are 

 food. Cheese and butter, for instance, would be 

 without good flavor if the bacteria proper to their 

 2:)roduction were lacking. Also there are bacteria 

 that make havoc with both butter and milk, so that 

 while the one kind of " microbe " is to be encouraged 

 the other is to be antagonized. Thus in the plant 

 world we find organism growing upon organism, par- 

 asite upon other plant, and microbe upon parasite, 

 and all of these with their especial uses in the econ- 

 omy of plant or animal life. 



From small to great, from the microscopic " mi- 

 crobe " only lately admitted to be a plant at all, we 

 turn to the bright succession of summer's larger 

 children, the beautiful flowers, more precious than 



