YOUNGER YEARS OF A PLANT. 101 



thousandth part of an inch, is the beginning of every plant 

 in creation. These cells are the living stones of which 

 this great temple of nature is built. Each minute cell, 

 moreover, is an independent plant, vegetating as a living 

 organism and having a life of its own. There are whole 

 races of plants, like the algae and the common mould 

 forming on decaying matter, which consist each only of 

 a single cell, although in varied and often most elegant 

 forms, with a brilliant display of bright color. 



The first germ of" a plant, then, has already a life 

 for it feeds, works and produces. It takes all its nutri- 

 ment from without. How, we know not, for although 

 plants have no table hanging at their gates with a surly 

 No Admittance ; although they work, on the contrary, 

 before every body's eyes, unfortunately human eyes are 

 not strong enough to discern the mysterious process that 

 is going on in their minute chambers. Even armed with 

 the most powerful microscope, we cannot penetrate the 

 mystery, and know not yet by what incomprehensible in- 

 stinct these diminutive cells, all unaided, pick up and select 

 their food, and arrange the new material so as to present 

 us at last with a perfect double of the graceful palm, the 

 queenly Victoria or the gigantic Baobab. It heightens the 

 wonder that all this power lies in a seed minute enough 

 to be invisible to the naked eye, and to be wafted about 

 by a breath of air. And yet it must be endowed with 

 most subtle and varied gifts, for out of the same food 

 plants are enabled to form a thousand rare substances : 

 now bringing forth nutritious and agreeable food for man, 

 now yielding materials most valuable to the arts of life, 



