16 



they tried, produce entirely new plants also, by chemically 

 changing the soil. 



Having thus given our view of vegetable life, it may not be 

 uninteresting, to see how it tallies with that given by botanists. 



Althotigh botanical students know the structure of every 

 well known species of plant, and examine the minutest parts of 

 them with a microscope, besides giving them names, such as 

 cells, granules, raphides, &c., yet, strangely enough, they have 

 not attempted to discover the principle of force which makes 

 them grow. They say a cell contains the first germ of life, 

 that it grows by dividing itself into four other cells, and these 

 four into sixteen, and so on. But what impels the cell to 

 divide itself? there is the mystery ! They say plants have two 

 principal parts, an ascending and a descending axis. (See how 

 agreeably this comes in with our theory of the poles.) The one 

 axis produces leaves and branches, whereas the other only forms 

 roots. In the leaves they find flattened cells with mouths, and 

 consequently they say plants inhale carbon and ammonia. In 

 the roots they find spongeols, and these they say draw up 

 water and potash only. 



If we ask, Why the roots spread out in all directions, it is 

 to search for food ; and why the leaves and branches spread 

 out in the atmosphere, it is to give them room to breathe. If 

 we ask what the power is that causes them to do so, they 

 cannot explain ; unless that it is a wonderful law of providence 

 for preserving the life of the plant. 



We will now refer to the fallacy of those botanical statements. 



That plants breathe through their leaves, is just as absurd as 

 to say a man breathes through the pores of his skin. They 

 say this is proved by coating a tree with paint and it dies. But 



