23 
So when I ask what is the odject of a plant’s life, I 
mean why does a plant send out roots in search of food, 
and a stem to carry this food upward, and 
leaves to drink in air and sunshine? What 
is the object of all this ? 
A great many people seem to think that 
the object of all plants with pretty flowers 
must be to give pleasure. But these people 
quite forget that hundreds and thousands of 
flowers live and die far away in the lonely 
forest, where no human eye ever sees them; 
that they so lived and died hundreds and 
thousands of years before there were any 
men and women, and boys and girls, upon 
the earth. And so, if they stopped long 
enough quietly to think about it, they would 
see for themselves that plants must have 
some other object in life than to give people pleasure. 
But now let us go back to the tree from which we 
took this apple, and see if we can find out its special 
object. 
“Why, apples!’ some of you exclaim. “Surely the 
object of an apple tree is to bear apples.”’ 
That is it exactly. An apple tree lives to bear apples. 
And now why is an apple such an important thing? 
Why is it worth so much time and trouble? What is 
its use? 
“Tt is good to eat,” chime all the children in chorus. 
Yes, so it is; but then, you must remember that once 
upon a time, apple trees, like all other plants and trees, 
grew in lonely places where there were no boys and 
FIG. 10 
