MANAGEMENT OF FKUITING VINES. Ill 



maintains the health of the individual. The stem can- 

 not do this : firstly, because it is a mere channel 

 through which fluids pass; and, secondly, because 

 many plants have no visible stem, as in the instance of 

 the primrose ; and yet in all such cases the plant feeds 

 and must digest its food. It is to the leaves that this 

 important office is assigned, and to enable them to 

 execute it G-od has formed them with wisdom no less 

 infinite than has been displayed in the creation of man. 

 The leaves have veins through which their fluids pass 

 and cells in which they are held while digesting, 

 myriads of little caverns through whose sides respira- 

 tion is maintained, a skin to guard them from the air, 

 and pores for carrying off perspiration. A leaf is, in 

 fact, both stomach and lungs ; and to. destroy it is to 

 do the same injury to a plant as would be effected in 

 an animal by the destruction of the parts to which 

 those names are given. Of this we may be certain, 

 that neither taste, perfume, color, size, nor any other 

 property, can be given to a plant except through the 

 assistance of the leaves ; and that the more numerous 

 these are, the larger and the more luxuriant, so, within 

 certain limits, will be all that a plant is capable of 

 forming. Strip the leaves off a tree, and no more 

 wood will appear until the leaves are restored ; feed 

 its roots in the hope of thus compensating for the loss 

 of its leaves, and the stem will be filled indeed with 



