42 



Principles of Plant Culture. 



■o'hen a plant containing green leaves is kept for a time 

 in the dark, us when celery is banked up with earth, the 

 chlorophyll disappeais and the green parts become 

 white. The chlorophyll saturates definite particles of 

 protoplasm, called chlorophyll bodies, and since the cell- 

 walls and protoplasm are transparent in the younger 

 cells, the chlorophyll bodies give the parts containing 



^? cfi 



Fie. 15. Showing cross-section tlirough leaf of Fagus sylvatica. C 

 chlorophyll bodies; Ep epidermis of upper surface of leaf; Ep" epider- 

 mis of lower surface; K cells containing ci-ystals; PI palisade layer; F 

 vascular bundle; St stoma; I spaces between the cells (intercellular 

 spaces). Highly magnified. (After Strasburger). 



them a green color. Fig. 15 shows the distribution of 

 the chlorophyll bodies in the cells of a portion of a leaf 

 of the beech. They ai')pear as minute globules, which in 

 this case are mostly located near the cell-walls. They 

 are most numerous near the upper surface of the leaf — 

 the part most exposed to the sun's rays. 



59. No Food can be formed Without Chlorophyll. By 

 the agency of chlorophyll, the chlorophyll bodies absorb 

 energy in the form of light. This energy the chloro- 

 phyll body uses to take to pieces the carbonic acid, min- 

 eral salts and water absorbed from the air and the soil, 



