PLANTS AS CURRENT CHANGERS. 



feet below its level. There are far more beings 

 entombed within the earth than are alive upon its 

 surface. 



The name of " Plant " is derived from PLANTA, 

 the sole of the foot, as if plants stood on one foot 

 while holding out their leaves and blossoms ; de- 

 noted petals, from the Greek PETALOS, outspread. 



The leaves of plants over the whole surface of 

 the earth, while excited by sunshine, like the 

 excited plates or leaves of a voltaic battery, are 

 specially adapted to decompose water and car- 

 bonic-acid gas ; so that plants are really electric 

 machines. 



As the ebbing and flowing tidal waves of the 

 electric ether, excited by artificial revolving mag- 

 nets, are converted by " current-changers " into 

 currents moving in a uniform direction, so there 

 are over a quarter of a million of different kinds of 

 natural mechanisms of plants subjected to solar 

 excitation, which convert the vibrations of light 

 and heat into thermo-electric currents through 

 the sap pores, in a circuit between the leaves and 

 the roots buried in the cool moist earth. 



As the plates or leaves of zinc, excited by acids 

 in the cells of voltaic batteries, remain cool while 

 converting vibrations into electric currents, so, 

 during a like natural process, the leaves of all 

 plants remain cool, while decomposing the car- 

 bonic-acid gas and water brought to them by 

 zephyrs and rain-drops as their appropriate food. 



