CHAPTER XIV 

 SCHOOL GARDENS 



Plants need food, not necessarily earth, because 

 earth is merely the matrix that contains the food 

 in a more or less extended form. The rootlets of 

 the plant will explore every tiny space about and 

 among the particles of soil for a bit of nutriment 

 in solution. 



I never see a rootlet or a root-hair without 

 thinking of the proboscides of honey bees. The 

 bee explores many a flower for a drop of nectar. 

 She gathers from all sources, till by her efforts, 

 combined with those of thousands of others, suffi- 

 cient food is provided for the entire colony. As 

 each bee explores the flowers of a certain territory, 

 gathering the greater portion of the nectar within 

 that region, so each root-hair searches over, around, 

 under, its small domain of perhaps a dozen micro- 

 scopic granules, or within its little mass of partly 

 decayed vegetable mould, each working in co- 

 operation with legions of others, so that the en- 

 tire plant is provided with sustenance, as the bees 



123 



