60 WILSON & TOOMKU FKKTILIZKU COMPANY 



The Plant 



In the foregoing the plant has appeared largely as a 

 lay figure subject to mechanical law, but we must realize 

 that this is true only to a certain extent. Life is some- 

 thing none of us can define, but it exists as truly in the 

 vegetable as in the animal kingdom, and we will find not 

 only family but individual characteristics. The grower 

 is not all-powerful, but by studying these characteristics 

 and developing the good, strengthening the weak, and 

 repressing the bad, he can accomplish much toward bring- 

 ing about ideal results. 



Plants consist of three distinct parts : roots, stem, and 

 leaves. 



Stem The stem is principally a connecting link be- 

 tween the roots and the leaves, and a frame work upon 

 which the leaves are displayed to air and sunlight; but 

 more or less respiration and transpiration is going on 

 and the surface should be kept clean of either vegetable 

 or animal parasites that clog the pores (lenticels) inter- 

 fering with proper functioning as Avell as actually ab- 

 stracting support from the tissues of the host. 



Roots While the stem grows in all its parts, roots 

 lengthen in only a small^area just behind the little hard 

 cap which protects the point. It is only in this new area 

 that osmosis occurs, for the tissues soon become clogged. 

 The plant develops these feeding roots where moisture 

 and food are to be found. When it is growing rapidly they 

 are more numerous and the feeding surfaces are vastly 



