THE LEAVES 



61 



8. The inside of a leaf. The upper skin of the 

 leaf (fig. 35) is made up of little cells full of water. 

 This part of the leaf is without colour. The green 



colour shines 



a^SooSqaooBODQg through the 



skin from the 

 long cells 

 which you see 

 below the 

 skin. These 

 two rows of 

 long cells are 

 full of living 

 green stuff. 

 Look well at 

 the cells, for 

 it is here that 

 the starch, 

 sugar, and other stuffs are made that the plant is built 

 of. All the carbon collected by the leaf's skin, and 

 all the matter gathered by the root are passed on to 

 these green cells ; just as all the food we eat is passed 

 on to the stomach. And, indeed, this part of the leaf 

 is the plant's stomach. 



9. How water escapes from the leaf. Below the 

 closely-packed green cells you see looser cells which 

 fill up the space between the green cells and the under- 

 skin. This is the place where water leaves the leaf, 

 after having done its work. When you water a piece 

 of land, you have to see that the water can get away 

 from the land after passing through it. If you do not 

 attend to this, the land may soon be a useless bog. 

 Well, this spongy part of the leaf is the place where 



Fig- 35 



The inside of a leaf. Below the upper skin a, are cells 

 of living green stTzff b. Beneath these is jhe spongy 

 part c, where the surplus water evaporates. Iji the 

 lower skin d are many breathing pores. These are 

 shown in Fig. 36. 



