CHAPTER III. 



THE PLANT A LIVING MACHINE. 



The plant a machine into which energy atid material are 

 taken Carbon assim ilatioji Feeding A ecu m u I at ion 

 and transformations in the plant. The action of 

 light The chlorophyllf unction. 



The relations of the plant to the environment can 

 only be understood by taking into account the 

 results of modern physiological discoveries. These 

 teach us that the living plant is a highly complex 

 machine, the details of its organisation and 

 structure being much more numerous and much 

 more closely correlated at numerous points, than 

 the parts of any other machine known to us. 



They also teach us that it is supplied with 

 energy from without, as any other machine ; and 

 that when so supplied, and properly working, the 

 living structure or machinery does work, also as 

 other machines. But modern physiology goes 

 further, in that it renders some account of the 

 ways by which the external energy is taken into 



15 



