260 BOTANICAL GAZETTE | OCTOBER 
of the remaining portion would give a molecule of starch 
(C, H,,0O;). This is food making reduced to its simplest 
terms, and the chlorophyll granules that float in the semi-liquid- 
plasma are the centers of synthesis of organic compounds. 
Each starch granule, whether of wheat, potato, sago, or rice, 
represents a potential energy that may remain unnoticed until 
the occasion for oxygen to unite again with the elements in the 
compound when it ceases to exist as starch, and with the libera- 
tion of sensible energy carbon dioxide and water result. In 
other words, the sun’s force raises the inorganic compounds to 
a higher plane by deoxidation and union, and from that plane 
they may fall back, yielding, in the descent, an energy that 
physicists tell us is equal to that by which it was raised. 
In considering the leaves in their relationship to the sun and 
the whole realm of life upon the earth, it is evident we are face 
to face with the most potent of vital activities, and are getting 
at the heart of the forces that move the world. 
We might well, with much solemnity, approach the subject 
that lies before us, for the green leaf, as it stands upon its sup- 
porting twig, is a minute laboratory in which a noiseless chemist 
is constructing compounds that possess a potency peculiarly 
their own. 
With these facts in mind it needs be a very heedless child 
who will not be impressed with the worth of the wealth of green- 
ness that is met with in the living vegetable fabric that is woven 
with sunlight to clothe the otherwise barren earth. 
From this central thought concerning light relations of plant 
foliage there are a thousand starting points for study, and time 
permits of but the briefest mention of a few. Many plants have 
no green color, but doubtless prosper. These are the parasites, 
plants that have long ago formed the habit of gaining their 
nourishment at secondhand, and from those who do their own 
work of synthesis. The golden-threaded dodder, the sickly- 
hued mistletoe are of this class. They form no exception in 
the true sense, for they steal instead of labor for their living. 
The mushroom, toadstools, molds, and mildews are other 
