344 THE UNIVERSE. 



And indeed it is these cells, these living atoms, about one 

 three thousandth of an inch in diameter, but endowed with 

 a mysterious and disproportionate power of production, 

 which each spring cover our soil with verdure, and call to 

 life the awe-inspiring savanna or immense virgin forest. 



These creative vesicles, by lengthening, become fibres 

 or vessels, and these anatomical elements, when grouped 

 together, form roots, twigs, leaves, and flowers. Their 

 multiplication takes place with such prodigious rapidity 

 that a body of them not a hundredth part of the size of a 

 pin's head sometimes produces in a single night a plant 



157. Cellular Tissue filled with Fecula, seen with the microscope. 



which reaches the size of a great gourd ! This is what 

 takes place in some Fungi. 



In spite of the extreme minuteness of the interior of the 

 cells, they still contain bodies of very various kinds, some 

 of which one is surprised to find there. 



In the leaves the cells are all filled with little green 

 granules, which give to vegetation the color it displays 

 everywhere. Sometimes fine crystals are observed in them. 

 Vaucher and Morren have even found animalcules quite 



