238 THE CULTURE OF FARM CROPS. 



The cell contains a viscid albuminous fluid called proto- 

 plasm, (the beginning of life) in which numerous small 

 granules float. These granules are the germs or nuclei of 

 new cells, and the foundation from which growth of plants 

 proceeds. The perfected cells burst and set free the enclosed 

 granules. A delicate membrane appears on the surface of 

 the granule, and gradually extending beyond its boundary, 

 forms a new cell. The new cell immediately absorbs the 

 requisite material for its vital contents of protoplasm, and 

 granular matter from the sap of the plant, and thus com- 

 pletes its functions. Thus the building up of the plant tis- 

 sue goes on until it is arrested by the fulfillment of its pur- 

 pose; the ripening of its seed; and its subsequent death; 

 when the tissue begins to decay and is decomposed finally 

 into its elements and furnishes food for a future race of 

 plants. 



Other cells increase by division. The contents of the cell 

 become separated, and a new wall is formed betw r een the 

 separated granules; thus producing new cells each contain- 

 ing its granule or nucleus. This granule increases in size 

 and separates, forming a mass which in its turn separates 

 into individuals; and the formation of new cells is repeated. 

 In this manner the plant tissue grows and increases from its 

 termination or borders; the subdivision going on indefinitely 

 as long as the material is furnished for the growth of the 

 cells. 



A simple illustration of this beautiful process may be giv- 

 en. If we suppose the cell to be a brick, and the brick to 

 divide itself into separate parts by the elongation of each 

 end, and the widening of its sides and faces, and each part 

 to grow to be a complete brick, and each of these then to 

 subdivide itself again into separate parts, as before, and that 

 this process goes on continually and in such directions as to 

 form walls, with cross partitions, and the angular bounda- 

 ries and openings for doors and windows and every other 

 requisite for a building, we may then form some idea of how 

 a plant is formed and grows, and is built up into root and 

 stem and leaves and fruit, until the whole is completed. 



