vi.] BOTANY. 23 



these cases where the meat is laid on the digesting 

 surface, a fluid is poured out from its cells which 

 acts as a solvent on the animal substance, enabling 

 the plant to absorb it and use it for its nourishment. 



31. Except in cases of accident, plants in a state 

 of nature either die a natural death, that is, one that 

 comes after the functions of all its organs have been 

 fulfilled, or are eaten by animals. Those that die 

 a natural death undergo chemical changes which 

 constitute decay, and in so doing return to the air 

 and earth the materials of which they were con- 

 structed. Those that are eaten by other animals 

 undergo quite a different set of chemical changes in 

 the animal's body, and which may be said to result 

 in the several constituents of the plant supplying 

 nitrogenous substances to the animal's muscle, carbon 

 to its fat, mineral matter to its bones. These, or 

 some of these, are necessary to the life and health 

 of every animal, and are what it cannot obtain from 

 simple inorganic substances except these have been 

 first taken up by plants and united together into more 

 complicated compounds. 



VI. THE GROWING SEED. 

 GERMINATION. 



32. It is well to commence the actual study of 

 plants by that of the growth of the seed, as it is very 

 easily observed, and a right understanding of the early 

 history of the plant as studied in its seedling state is 

 a great help to the learner of its later history. 



33. Take seeds of pea, mustard, and wheat, and 

 place them on dry earth. So long as earth and seeds 



