288 THE CHEMISTRY OF CREATION. 



soft and drooping, and the gigantic flowers 

 become flaccid, scentless, and faded. The earth 

 is cracked and parched, animals and birds faint, 

 and men die for thirst. 



In the generality of plants, the supply of 

 fluids is drawn exclusively, or nearly so, from 

 the delicate spongioles of the roots, which, with 

 their multitude of delicate cells, drink in from 

 the earth the newly-dropped rain, and transmit 

 the fluid to the stem.* The water, thus sup- 

 plied, enters .into the circulating system of the 

 plant, and undergoes decomposition to meet its 

 wants, while the excess flies off through the 

 stomata, or mouths of the leaves, or escapes, 

 with a rich load of odour, from the waxen cells 

 of the flower. 



As the medium by which a number of solu- 1 

 ble substances of importance to the well-being 

 of plants are conveyed to them, the importance 

 of rain to the vegetable economy appears still 

 more evident. Falling in the manner described, 

 rain is in the most favourable condition for dis- 

 solving any ingredients of a soluble kind pre- 



* At times when no rain falls, and no free water is present 

 in the soil, which is merely damp, or charged with condensed 

 vapour upon water, plants obtain their fluid from.waterin this 

 condition. It appears from some observations and calculations 

 of Dr. Schleiden, that the greater part of the water used by 

 plants does not come from rain, but from the vapour silently 

 condensed by the soil from the air. 



