58 THE LIFE OF THE PLANT 



property by which substances spread, rush from where 

 they are present to where they are absent, and (2) trans- 

 formation, i.e. the passage of substances from very 

 mobile to less mobile or quite immobile forms. 



In this way the study of the fundamental phenomena 

 underlying the nutrition of a vegetable cell brings us to 

 the conclusion that they are really phenomena of 

 diffusion, not essentially peculiar to living organisms, 

 but following rather from the general properties of 

 matter. We come to the conclusion that so funda- 

 mental a process as nutrition is conditioned by laws 

 common to both animate and inanimate nature. 



