102 Field, Forest, and Wayside Flowers 



are seen under the microscope to be beautiful 

 also (Fig. 1 8). 



The newly-made starch in leaves appears in tiny 

 grains inside the chlorophyll bodies, or close be- 

 side them. It does not remain there and grow 

 into larger starch-grains, but with the withdrawal 

 of sunlight it seems to melt away and disappear. 

 The starch has been dissolved, or rather changed, 

 into fluid glucose, and this is gradually drawn 

 through cell-wall after cell-wall till it reaches some 

 actively-growing part of the plant, where it is 

 used at once, or some permanent tissue, where it 

 is turned into starch again, and stored away to 

 meet the needs of the future. 



In spring all the starch which the leaves can 

 make is changed to glucose and used immedi- 

 ately for growth. But in latter summer the plant 

 puts it away. In some cases the starch is saved 

 in wood, pith, bark, or tubers to feed next spring's 

 shoots; in others it is packed into seeds, where it 

 supports the plant's children in their infancy. 



If a tree is hewn down in winter the cells of 

 its wood are found to contain innumerable starch- 

 grains. When nature takes her course these are 

 converted into glucose during the first warm days 

 of spring, and the pushing buds are fed with it. 



