2 THE RUBBER TREE BOOK 



To those who follow on, science soon assumes a warm, living 

 aspect; as has been said, the dry facts form, like a skeleton, 

 the mere framework which gives support to the entire, pulsating, 

 life-retaining parts of the great organization. 



Yet, while this is so, F. O. Bower, the Regius Professor of 

 Botany in the University of Glasgow, is undoubtedly right 

 when he says: " No subject has been more heavily weighted 

 by technical terms and uncouth names than botany. The 

 very pronunciation of them is often an offence to the ear of 

 the cultivated classes, while to those who love Nature and 

 natural things the language commonly used in botany is an 

 effectual barrier to the pursuit of this spontaneous line of 

 interest. As a matter of fact, the profession groans under the 

 burden. It is largely a legacy of a misguided past, which can 

 only be thrown off by a determined and collective effort. The 

 result is that the vocabulary to be heard at any sitting of the 

 Botanical Section of the British Association is certainly not 

 such as is ' commonly understanded of the people/ ' 



Such a pronouncement justifies one who describes the 

 anatomy of a vegetative organism in throwing aside all cum- 

 brous terms. 



The structure of a Hevea tree may be considered in four 

 important divisions. These are: first, the roots; second, there 

 is the stem; third, there are the leaves; and fourth, the means 

 of reproduction, i.e., flowers with the seeds. 



The bodies of plants, like those of animals, are principally 

 composed of innumerable very small cells, which together form 

 a kind of honeycomb structure. These cells contain living 

 matter called protoplasm. All plants, just like all animals, 

 are living organisms, and are built up of living cells. A quali- 

 fication to these statements is necessary in that rows of cells 

 in the wood lose their cross-walls and their protoplasm and 

 form long tubes that conduct water and salts from the roots 

 upwards, while others in the bark form channels leading food 

 manufactured in the leaves downwards. 



What protoplasm (life-slime) just exactly is, no one knows. 

 It is alive, and it acts with a certain intelligence, but how, or 

 why, science can only very inadequately explain. The ancient 

 Greeks had the idea that a spirit, a sort of wood-nymph, lived 

 in every tree, lamented when it was injured, and died when it 



