THE GROWING PLANT 109 



From this double source, the Soil and the Air, 

 all crops raised by farmers over the whole earth 

 derive food, grow and ripen, ready for the garner, 

 to serve in turn as food for Man and his domestic 

 animals. 



So the acorn, Fig. 65, perchance falling on fav- 

 orable soil, like the farmer's seed, germinates and 

 grows. In completing the evolution, the down- 

 ward sprout, Fig. 66, becomes one great mass of 

 roots, with thousands of rootlets, occupying a large 

 space of the soil, and extracting therefrom food 

 for the general sustenance and support of the tree. 

 The upward sprout, too, develops into the stem, 

 and this divides into many lofty branches, and 

 these into thousands of branchlets, finally ending 

 in tens of thousands of leaves. The leaves act as 

 so many mouths grasping food from the air for 

 the nourishment of the oak. 



Thus by this double process of extracting food 

 from Soil and Air, all the forests are produced, 

 which cover so large a portion of the earth's sur- 

 face. 



Wonderful to think that all the farmers' crops 

 and all the forests over the whole earth were once 

 parts of the soil and parts of the air. More won- 

 derful to think that Man and all the animals that 

 roam on the land, swim in the sea, or fly in the 

 air, were also once parts of the soil and parts of the 

 air. Most wonderful of all that machinery of Na- 

 ture which has the power thus to transform parts 

 of the soil and the air into all the Vegetable and 



