CONSTITUENTS OF THE PLANT. 



167 



bark. It flows most freely at sunrise, when the natives (with whom it 

 forms a chief article of food) flock in troops to fill their bowls with it. 



409. Food is usually stored up 

 in the cell itself. Feeula (starch) 

 is the chief ingredient; it occurs 

 in the form of fine grains, called 

 granules, which are character- 

 istic in each plant, like the form 

 of its cells (Fig. 239). 



Fig. 239.— a, cell of Irish Potato (So- 

 Icmum tubero8iim), with many starch- 

 grains. B, starch -grains of "Wheat 

 (Triticum vulgare). U, do. of Indian 

 Corn {Zea Mays). 



410. Foods and Poiaons. 

 — Plants diflfer not only in 

 form and habit, but in the 

 substances into which they 

 transmute the same inor- 

 ganic elements. The 

 Deadly Nightshade and 

 the Orange grow side by 

 side, absorbing the same 

 moisture, inhaling the 

 same air ; yet by some law 

 still unexplained the juices 

 of the Nightshade are 

 turned to poisons, whilst 

 those of the Orange be- 

 come fragrant oils and de- 

 licious fruits. The same 

 plant sometimes creates 

 both foods and poisons. 



Fig. 240. — HrychnoB Nux-vomica. 



The pulp of the Nux-Vomica fruit 

 (Fig. 240) is perfectly harmless, — birds 

 devour it eagerly, — while the seeds con- 

 tain the deadliest poison. The Sarsa- 

 parilla (Pig. 241) is a medicine or a 

 poison in proportion to the quantity 

 used. 



411. The food of plants is the 

 poison of animals. Carbonic 

 acid gas, a necessary element in 

 plant food, is destructive to ani- 

 mal life. Animals exhale it 

 from their lungs, where it is 

 formed by the union of the 



SarsnpariUa (StniUix 



