THE PLANT AND THE WATER 19 



similar vessels tumblers, glass fruit-jars or even old 

 tin cans will answer. Pull up a thrifty bunch of clover 

 and put its roots into one of these vessels of water. 

 Stand both on a table or shelf side by side. In a few 

 days you will notice that the water in the vessel 

 containing the clover is disappearing much more rap- 

 idly than that in the other vessel. As soon as the 

 clover begins to wilt take it out of the water and by 



Relative amounts of 

 water at the beginning of 

 the experiment. 



Relative amounts of 

 water at the end of the 

 experiment. 



measuring compare what remains in the two vessels. 

 Of course, both have lost by evaporation that is, both 

 have "dried up," as we say but, if the vessels are of 

 the same size, there should be equal evaporation. 

 Why, then, should not the remainders be equal? Be- 

 cause the clover plant has been using up water. The 

 difference between what remains in the two cans repre- 

 sents the amount used by the clover plant. 



Hoiv Plants Use Water. Plants make use of water 

 in two ways. In the first place, they use it as food 

 just the same as animals do. In the second place, a 

 plant cannot eat solid food. It has neither month nor 

 teeth and it must take in its food in liquid form 



