LUTHER BURBANK 



simple dwelling; the cane sugar molecule an 

 elaborate mansion. 



But the materials with which they are com- 

 pounded are precisely the same. 



There is a good deal of uncertainty on the part 

 of the chemists as to the exact way in which the 

 various molecules of the different sugars and allied 

 carbohydrate substances are built up. 



Some chemists regard a molecule of a substance 

 called methyl aldehyde, which consists of a single 

 atom each of carbon and oxygen combined with 

 two atoms of hydrogen as the basal form of carbon 

 compound which the chlorophyll in the plant leaf 

 makes by bringing together an atom of carbon 

 from the atmosphere and a molecule of water. 



From this relatively simple carbon compound 

 more elaborate compounds are built, through the 

 introduction of varying numbers of additional 

 atoms of carbon or hydrogen or oxygen, as the case 

 may be, and all of the intricate juices and flavors 

 and sweet and bitter principles of the various 

 plants are thus compounded in the marvelous 

 laboratory of the plant cell. 



THE PRODUCT OF THE HOP 



Among the multitudes of compounds of the 

 almost endless series in which carbon, hydrogen, 

 and oxygen are joined through the agency of the 

 plant cell, there is one that is of peculiar interest 



[154] 



