CUCKOO-PINT.. 79 



of sunlight : but a young seedling can no 

 more feed itself than a human baby can ; and 

 so food is stored up for it. beforehand by the 

 parent stock. As the kernel, swells with heat 

 and moisture, its starches and albumens get 

 oxidised and produce the motions and re- 

 arrangements of particles that result in the 

 growth of a new plant. First a little head 

 rises towards the sunlight and a little root 

 pushes downward towards the moist soil 

 beneath. The business of the root is to 

 collect water for the circulating medium the 

 sap or blood of the plant as well as a few 

 mineral matters required for its stem and 

 cells ; but the business of the head is to spread 

 out into leaves, which are the real mouths 

 and stomachs of the compound organism. 

 For we must never forget that all plants 

 mainly grow, not, as most people suppose, 

 from the earth, but from the air. They are 

 for the most part mere masses of carbon- 

 compounds, and the carbon in them comes 

 from the carbonic acid diffused through the 



