CHAPTER VI. 



OF THE FOOD OF PLANTS, AND THE MANNER IN WHICH IT 

 IS OBTAINED. 



154. A PLANT or tree can no more exist without food, than 

 can an animal ; and it is only because the mode in which they 

 receive it is less evident to us, that we do not commonly think 

 of Vegetables, as equally dependent with Animals, upon the 

 materials supplied to them by the elements around. We are 

 constantly witnessing the act of feeding, in all the Animals that 

 are under our notice ; but the growth and reproduction of Plants 

 seem to take place, with so slight an introduction of solid matter 

 into their system, that it cannot be comprehended without fur- 

 ther examination, how they derive the means of uprearing the 

 gigantic masses of wood and foliage, which many of them present 

 to our admiring view. It cannot be shown, that any solid mat- 

 ter is ordinarily taken up by the roots, except certain mineral 

 ingredients which most plants require, and the use of which 

 will be presently stated ; these, too, must be dissolved in water, 

 before they can be imbibed. How, then, do they obtain the ma- 

 terials of the firm wood of their stems, roots, and branches, of 

 the soft but still firm tissue of their leaves and fruits, of the 

 fleshy seeds they generate in their flowering system, and of 

 the various hard substances which they produce in their different 

 tissues ? This question will now be answered. 



155. In the first place it may be laid down as a fact beyond 

 doubt, that neither Plants nor Animals have the power of creat- 

 ing or producing matter, which did not before exist. Living 

 beings are entirely dependent upon the supplies they obtain from 

 without, for the maintenance and enlargement of their own 



