PLANT DEVELOPMENT 



But it is not only in the vital essence of his 

 body, the blood, that the farmer may find like- 

 ness between himself and his plants, be they 

 flowers or fruits or waving grains. The search- 

 ers for the secrets of the New Earth have dis- 

 closed to him that the bones of his own body 

 and the framework of his plants are both 

 dependent upon the same substance, the lime 

 which gives skeleton to both. For the cells of 

 the plant in which go on the wonderful pro- 

 cesses of plant growth demand lime, in addition 

 to other substances, for their construction and 

 maintenance, just as man demands it for his 

 own frame, — without it both collapse. 



More and more as the man comes to study 

 the plant, he discovers strange likenesses be- 

 tween himself and it. He wishes much for 

 something, — it may be a wider education for his 

 children than he has himself had, it may be 

 that beautifully lying piece of meadow-land 

 beyond his borders, which he has longed for 

 these many years — he wishes, but he does more, 

 he acts, and acts with prolonged persistence 

 until he reaches the end sought. In a humbler, 

 but not less persistent way, the roots of a plant 

 follow in the same path. The tip of the root is 



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