LUTHER BURBANK 



food material upon which the tissues of the plant 

 can draw at need. 



Starch itself is insoluble in the juice of the 

 plant, but to make it available whenever needed, 

 it is only necessary for the plant chemist to add 

 to the compound the constituents of a molecule 

 of water, namely two atoms of hydrogen and one 

 of oxygen, and the starch is transformed into a 

 soluble sugar called glucose or levulose. 



This substance, dissolved in the juice of the 

 plant, may then be transferred to the place where 

 it is needed; which, in the case under consid- 

 eration is the flesh of the fruit. 



The process of starch manufacture and of 

 transformation of starch into sugar, with the final 

 storing of the sweet product in the flesh of the 

 prune, constitutes, as I have just suggested, one 

 of the most marvellous manifestations of the 

 power of vegetable cells. Indeed, it is precisely 

 this capacity that differentiates vegetable tissues 

 from all animal tissues whatever; for the biol- 

 ogists tell us that no living organism, high or 

 low, save only the vegetable, is capable of 

 manufacturing a single molecule of starch, much 

 less a molecule of sugar out of inorganic materials. 



So a thoughtful person can scarcely fail to 

 regard even so plebeian a thing as a prune with 

 a certain measure of wonderment, almost of 



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