CELLS, VESSELS, AND TISSUES. 165 



or a branch of a shrub or tree. Look at a bit of board 

 which you know has been sawn out of the trunk of 

 some tree ; break the stalk of a dandelion ; cut an 

 apple or plum in half, or tear across one or two 

 different kinds of leaves. How different the substance 

 of these things ! Now I want to-day to tell you a 

 little about how these things, and all other parts of 

 plants, are made up. 



You cannot make out very much as you look at 

 the soft, sappy substance of the buttercup stem, or 

 the hard wood, or the thin or fleshy leaves. To 

 search into them thoroughly requires a microscope ; 

 but with the use of your magnifying glass and a few 

 pictures, we shall be very well able to understand 

 something about the composition of plants and their 

 parts : the way in which they are made up the 

 Anatomy * of Plants. 



We shall begin with an orange. Choose the ripest 

 you can find : partly cut, and then tear it in half. 

 Now, the pulp is made up of a lot of little juicy bags 

 or bladders. Separate a little bit of it carefully, and 

 you will easily get one or two of these little bladders 

 unbroken. They are called " cells," and cells are 

 the first or foundation substance of which plants are 

 made up. But these cells of the orange pulp are old 

 ones. Their life is over ; they are simply bags full 

 of juice a pulpy covering for the seeds and in due 

 course they would rot away. But in its young and 



* From the Greek "ana" and " teinno" I cut in pieces, I separate. 



