The Strange Story of the Flowers 



the farmer's taking bacteria into partnership. 

 To-day these little organisms are cultivated of 

 set purpose, and quest is being made for similar 

 bacteria suitable to be harnessed in producing 

 wheat, corn, and other harvests. 



These are times when men of science are dis- 

 contented with mere observation. They wish 

 to pass from watching things as nature pn 

 them to putting them into relations wholly new. 

 In 1 866 DeBary, a close observer of lichens, felt 

 confident that a lichen was not the simple growth 

 it seems, but a combination of fungus and 

 This opinion, so much opposed to honoured 

 tradition, was scouted, but not for long. Bef< >re 

 many months had passed Stahl took known algae, 

 and upon them sowed a known fungus, the result 

 was a known lichen ! The fungus turns out to 

 be no other than a slave-driver that captures 

 algse in colonies and makes them work for him. 

 He is, however, a slave-driver of an intelligent 

 his captives thrive under his mastery, and 

 increase more rapidly for the healthy ex 

 he insists that they shall take. 



It is an afternoon in August and the sultry 

 air compels us to take shelter in a grove of sway- 

 ing maples. Beneath their shade every square 

 yard of ground bears a score of infant trees, very 

 few of them as much as a foot in stature. How 

 vain their exj i e day enjoying an 



ample spread "1" branch and root, of rising to the 

 sunshine of upper air! The scene, with its 

 quivering rounds of sunlight, set i itself, 



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