I 



CHAPTER V 



PLANT DEVELOPMENT 



Flower in the crannied wall, 



I pluck you out of the crannies; 



I hold you here, root and all, in my hand. 

 Little flower — but if I could understand 

 What you are, root and all, and all in all, 

 I should know what God and man is. 



— Tennyson. 



IN passing from a consideration of the crea- 

 tion of a plant to fit a soil, it will be of 

 interest to note the recent developments of, 

 and additions to, the world's knowledge of 

 plant life itself, and to indicate something of 

 the store of knowledge to which the tiller 

 of the soil of the New Earth may now go 

 for assistance in carrying forward his work. 

 In comparison with some other of his activi- 

 ties, man has been painfully halting and back- 

 ward through the centuries in his investigations 

 in the realm of plant Hfe. Indeed, even now, 

 when the Hfe of the New Earth is bursting 

 into blossom, the layman is constantly sur- 

 prised at the differences in opinion expressed 



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