96 VEGETABLES. 



in germinating seeds, in the sap of the maple tree, and 

 in ripening fruits. And, what is more, these trans- 

 formations can be imitated by the chemist. You may 

 take an ounce of starch and turn it all into gum ; you 

 may then turn this gum into sugar. Nor need you 

 stop here ; you may dissolve this sugar in water, and 

 then, if you expose it to air and warmth, and add to it 

 a single particle of yeast, you will transform it into alco- 

 hol. And you need riot stop here ; for, if you let the 

 fermentation proceed one step farther, you transform 

 the alcohol into vinegar. You cannot change starch 

 into vinegar directly, but you can do it by the route 

 I have described. You may even go back one step 

 farther, and commence with woody fibre. You may 

 change woody fibre into starch. Your routine of 

 transformations then would be, woody fibre, starch, 

 gum, sugar, alcohol, vinegar. It should be remarked, 

 however, that the constitution of the two last becomes 

 changed. Alcohol and vinegar are of the same ele-. 

 ments, but not in the same proportions as the others. 



177. Such are some of the proximate constituents 

 of plants, and a few of the numerous and wonderful 

 transformations to which they are subject. 



178. Sooner or later all these substances, which 

 plants have so curiously elaborated out of dead mat- 

 ter, are destroyed. Their organic elements return to 

 the air ; their inorganic, to the soil ; both to the place 

 whence they came ; both, as undistinguished atoms, 

 to be used in building up new plants and new ani- 

 mals, which, in their turn, are to perish and become 



