INTRODUCTION 



To explore is to seek, and to picture is to gather the 

 evidence so all can see and benefit. The exploration 

 may be in far, unknown countries, the ocean bot- 

 tom, or minute life under the microscope. To pic- 

 ture plant and animal life and its movements has 

 become the life work of the author. 



Movement in plant life was known but not under- 

 stood or registered to any extent until the lapse- 

 time camera was used to picture it. This opened an 

 entirely new field of research explorations. 



Beauty, Form, and Color, the Rhythm of move- 

 ment, express art everywhere. The story of a bud 

 opening, a leaf unfolding, a seed germinating, all 

 the various steps of its life struggle for perpetuation, 

 is as interesting and poignant as one's own life's hap- 

 penings. Step by step the lens has registered on a 

 sensitive film of a lapse-time, motor-driven motion 

 camera, recording in that way in a comparatively few 

 seconds life efforts that may take days or even weeks 

 to happen. 



A book is written, representing years of research 

 and thought; you read it in a few days. A flower 

 grows, a season's combined efforts of sunshine, water 

 and soil. The result, seeds to carry on to another 



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