34 THE LIFE OF THE PLANT 



The physiologist's horizon thus becomes wider and 

 wider. After studying the Hfe of separate organs, be- 

 ginning with the elementary organ from which all others 

 are formed, i.e. the cell ; after studying the general 

 effect of the interaction of these organs, i.e. the life- 

 history of the plant as a whole, he tries to grasp, in so 

 far as it is accessible to him, the life of the plant world 

 as a whole, and thus attempts to shed light on the 

 greatest and most mysterious problem — the problem of 

 the origin of the plant and the reason of its perfection, 

 in other words, the problem of the harmony of the plant 

 world. 



Before we step forward, however, on this gradually 

 rising synthetic path, we must go a little deeper in our 

 analysis. We have dissected the plant into organs 

 and the organs into cells, but so far we have only 

 examined the external structure of the cell. We must 

 peep into its interior, into the microscopic laboratory, 

 where the innumerable substances produced by the 

 plant are formed. We must study them and disin- 

 tegrate them into their elements. For this purpose 

 balance and chemical reagents will come to the assist- 

 ance of our microscope. This study will form the 

 subject of the next chapter. 



