4 MAN ON THE LANDSCAPE 



many men, animals, machinery, fertilizers, sunshine, rain, processing 

 plants, transportation systems and communication systems are used. 

 The whole universe contributes to the completion of the automobile; 

 and for its operation an extensive industry, petroleum, had to be 

 created ; and highway networks had to be built. 



It is not too difficult to appreciate the tremendous organization 

 and the resource operations necessary in this instance because man 

 is responsible for most of the manipulative work invloved. We know 

 what such effort is. 



Living plants are far more complex than any machine. Of the role 

 of the organized universe, the solar and earth factors which are 

 necessary to produce plants, most of us are only vaguely aware. 

 Chemists have found hundreds of chemical compounds in leaves alone. 

 Botanists can dissect plants and study their parts, can bring the mi- 

 croscope and test tube to bear on the many kinds of tissues and cells. 

 A master mechanic may know all about how an automobile works. No 

 botanist knows all about how a plant works. 



Fortunately the botanist knows some things, and a part of what he 

 knows, everyone ought to know, because that part relates intimately 

 to the quality, satisfaction, and success of human living. 



The botanist does not progress very far until he realizes (as does 

 the specialist in any branch of science) that he cannot bottle himself 

 up in an air-tight compartment of knowledge. If he does completely 

 isolate his field of study, he never finds the answers to the great, intri- 

 cate questions which man asks about life and death. 



The most elementary study of a plant (or of an animal, for that 

 matter) immediately brings up three questions: Of what is it made? 

 How does it operate? What is the source of the energy by which it 

 works ? 



The bio-chemist (we are already knocking on the door of another 

 science) cooks up a plant brew and runs it through his test tubes. He 

 reports that some thirty of the world's ninety-six elements are to be 

 found in a wide range of plants. Fourteen elements, at least, are 

 found in every green plant. Somewhat surprised, he steps next door 

 and asks the physicist to check his findings. The physicist heats plants 

 until the ashes glow. Viewing or photographing through a spectro- 

 scope the light rays given off by the white-hot mineral ashes, he con- 

 firms the chemist's report and adds another 30 minerals to the list. 

 Each of the sixty elements is identified by the wavelength of its light 

 rays. 



So, plants are packets of elements, cunningly arranged and or- 

 ganized. But what are elements? Again the physicist supplies the 

 answer. An element is composed of atoms which are all alike. An 

 atom is an organized and active arrangement of electrons, protons 

 and neutrons. Each of the more than ninety elements has a different 

 number and arrangement of electrons, protons, neutrons. And what 



