PERSONALITY OF PLANTS 
plants manufacture the greater part of their 
solid material out of the carbon dioxide of the 
air. Of what the plants do obtain from the 
soil, water makes up the largest bulk. The 
bread and meat of the plant world is carbon 
dioxide; the drink is soil water in which is dis- 
solved certain essential salts and condiments. 
A chemical analysis of a Green Pea will 
show approximately 46.5% of carbon, 4.2% of 
nitrogen and 3.1% of all other elements, exclu- 
sive of the hydrogen and oxygen which make 
up the water permeating all tissue. 
This is truly a startling fact. Instead of be- 
longing to the earth, the plants then belong 
primarily to the air. The air is their natural 
habitat; the earth serves to give them a fixed 
place in the world and provide them with 
flavoured water to drink. 
Plants are born from seeds, the joint pro- 
duct-of two previous individuals; they live by 
eating and drinking; they marry and in turn 
rear families of their own. It is our purpose 
in this chapter to show, in a very definite way, 
that this is not mere figurative language but a 
common-sense statement of fact. 
[28] 
