56 LUTHER BURBANK 



not exactly but approximately, and the better 

 the fit the more harmonious the conditions 

 within. 



Crystals, like mushrooms, may live and grow 

 without the direct influence of light, while most 

 plants depend wholly upon the action of light 

 for life, and all animal life depends absolutely 

 and wholly for all its nourishment upon the 

 action of sunlight upon the foliage of plants. 

 All food comes first from foliage. The sun feeds 

 the earth from its abundance and by it life is 

 awakened and sustained. 



Unicellular plant life was, without any possible 

 doubt, the first form of primitive living organism 

 which appeared on this planet. A cell is an 

 individual entity developed by its environment 

 from more or less amorphous colloidal sub- 

 stances. It is plain that to exist and have an 

 individuality it must be separated from the rest 

 of the cosmos. A cell is, in short, a package of 

 protoplasmic substance inclosed from the rest of 

 the cosmos in its protective covering, large or 

 small, usually very small. Protoplasm, the base 

 of all plant and animal life, is an amorphous 

 compound composed of various chemical sub- 

 stances in a very complicated and unstable form, 

 as is always the case with all vegetable and ani- 

 mal nourishing foods; in other words, it is an 



