CHAPTER II 

 THE SOILS THAT LIVING THINGS HAVE MADE 



No one knows just when the first plant came into the 

 world, nor the kind : it was too far back in the dim ages 

 of the past ; long before any history was ever written ; 

 long even before man or bird or beast had yet appeared. 

 We may be sure, however, that it was a very tiny plant, 

 so small that the little roots did not need to go deep into 

 the earth, for the soil was just beginning its growth. We 

 may be safe even in saying that these early forms of 

 plants had only the rock itself for their homes, and on 

 this rock they established themselves, sending their small 

 roots just the tiniest bit into the crevices and into the 

 opened particles that had been loosed by air and water, 

 by heat and cold. 



The beginning of plant growth. But doubtless the 

 earliest forms of plant life were aquatic in character: they 

 lived in the water. We have learned of the solvent power 

 of water. Many of the early stagnant pools became de- 

 positories of water holding in solution the dissolved min- 

 eral materials of the kind forming the rock structures. 

 This was just the sort of food that these pioneer plants 

 fancied, for they and all of their kind since have secured 

 their feeding materials in this manner. As years and cen- 

 turies passed, these beginning forms of plant life became 

 stronger, more steady and some became quite venture- 

 some, clinging to the rocks that held fast the waters of 

 ^the pool ; and still others, flinging the experience of their 

 parental tribes to the winds, ascended beyond the limits 



