THE CELL AS A MICROBE 57 



into eight, and so on, until the germ proper, the 

 nucleus of the forming acorn, becomes perfect. 



Then the cells not only grow and multiply in 

 all directions, but in multiplying they also differ- 

 entiate into different species. These species are 

 very different from one another, very numerous, 

 and form each a distinct colony. They are all 

 used to build and sustain the structure as a whole 

 some the meat, some the shell, others the husk. 

 While each community, like a community of mi- 

 crobes, acts with the purpose to make and sustain 

 a special part, all the communities work together 

 with the higher purpose so to do each its work as 

 to make all the parts fit one another and constitute 

 a perfect acorn. 



Now plant this acorn in the soil. It germinates 

 and grows. One tendency is downward. A mi- 

 nute sprout pierces into the soil below. Cell after 

 cell is added. They differentiate into many 

 species. Each specie is a colony to do a set kind 

 of work. Some build the fiber of the tap root, 

 others its pith, still others its bark. But they all 

 work together in such relations to one another as 

 to develop the tap root, as a whole, downward, and 

 still downward, making it at length complete. 

 Meanwhile, by the manufacture of thousands upon 

 thousands of different colonies of cells, the main 

 root divides into many smaller roots, these smaller 

 roots subdivide into still smaller roots, and these 

 into thousands upon thousands of rootlets. So 



