128 HOURS WITH NATURE. 



useful plants during the dry hot month of baishakh and 

 thus supply them with moisture at a time when they need 

 it most. 



How the ashwathwa feeds and digests. We have 

 already learnt that carbonic acid serves as food to 

 the ashwatkwa, and that the leaves obtain it from the 

 floating air. We have also learnt that water is always 

 present in the leaf, and for that matter, in every part 

 of this giant tree ; and that there is some kind of green 

 matter in the green cells of the leaf. We need not 

 trouble ourselves as to what the name of this green matter 

 is ; suffice it to know that it is essential to the life of the 

 ashwathwv,, and needless to say that it plays an important 

 part in the production of those substances of which the 

 tree is composed. This is what happens. There is the 

 green stuff in the cells of the leaf on the one hand, and 

 a supply of carbonic acid derived from the air, and of 

 water derived from the soil on the other. Under the 

 influence of sun-light living matter containing this green 

 substance is able to effect certain chemical changes, in 

 the course of which carbonic acid is decomposed, the 

 oxygen being set free and the carbon entering into 

 combination with the material present in the water 

 derived from the roots &c form compounds such as 

 starch, sugar &c. These are dissolved in the sap and 

 in combination with nitrogen and other substances serve 

 as the sources from which new protoplasm arises, 

 and from which new cells and tissues are ultimately 

 developed. 



