5i4 BOTANY FOR YOUNG PEOPLE. 



.SECOND CONVERSATION. 



L. How is it sister, that at the end of our 

 garden, next the rosebushes, there are some 

 Stramonium plants growing, and a little further 

 on some turnips. I have been looking at the 

 ground and it appears to me all of the same 

 kind ; so I cannot see how roses, and poisons, and 

 turnips, can be made of exactly the same thing. 



E. Our food at table is generally alike, is 

 it not Laura ? 



L. Yes, almost always. 



E. Why then do not your features and 

 form resemble mine, as exactly as you would 

 have the plants simulate one another ? 



L. Our souls make us look as we do- 

 plants have no souls. 



E. That would not answer my question. 

 It is not your soul that digests your food or 

 makes your heart beat, for in that case these 

 actions could not take place while you slept. 

 You have within you a principle, separate from 

 the soul, called the Vital Power, whose office 

 it is to take charge of the building up and 

 repairing of your body. A plant has exactly 

 the same kind of principle, without a soul. It 



