ON GARDENING 



(with the rare exception of parasites which take 

 food predigested by the green plants), from the 

 minutest creeper to the most gigantic sequoia or 

 palm or eucalyptus, have leaves of the same 

 primary color. 



And the reason for this is that the leaf derives 

 its color from the massed effect of little structures 

 called chlorophyll granules that nestle in its indi- 

 vidual cells, constituting the really essential part 

 of its food-forming laboratory. These have 

 adopted a green uniform as the insignia of their 

 office, and they hold as rigidly to this color as if 

 their very lives depended upon it. And for aught 

 we know to the contrary, their lives may depend 

 on it; for no one has yet been wise enough to say 

 just what relation the color bears to the wizard- 

 like powers of the so-called chlorophyll granules 

 that wear it, and that, seemingly with its aid, 

 effect the marvelous transformation of inorganic 

 elements into food-stuffs of which they alone of 

 all created things are capable. 



As I say, no one knows just what relation the 

 green color of the chlorophyll granules bears to 

 their work because no one knows just how their 

 work is performed. 



That is to say no one at all understands why it 

 is possible for the plant cell that bears within its 

 substance one of these green chlorophyll bodies to 



[29] 



