CHAPTER VIII 



THE FLOWER 



The nutrient substances spent in the building up of 



the solid parts of the plant reach their final destination 



in the phenomena of growth. Thus the life of a plant 



resolves itself into nutrition and growth. A plant feeds 



in order to grow, grows in order to feed, i.e. to enlarge 



the surface of its food-absorbing organs. These two 



conjoint processes may last a very long time ; in some 



plants they last even thousands of years ; yet they 



always reach a limit, though as a matter of fact we are 



unable to explain the necessity for such a limit, or to 



understand why one and the same vegetable organism 



should not exist for an indefinite length of time. Let us 



imagine a plant that produces surface runners, like 



those of the strawberry, or underground stems, so-called 



rhizomes, like those of the couch-grass (Triticum repens) : 



these new parts will spread out and cover an ever wider 



area ; old parts will die away, and consequently the 



connexion between them and the young parts will 



break : they will separate, but nevertheless they will 



continue to be parts of one and the same plant, which, 



while destroyed at one end, will go on growing at the 



other. Or let us take another example from among 



trees : a well-known Indian fig-tree, the banj^an tree, 



produces adventitious roots from its outstretched 



branches. These roots reach the ground, thicken, and 



form pillar-like supports to the branches, furnishing 



them at the same time with necessary food. In this 



way a single tree may cover whole acres of land. The 



main trunk may get destroyed here also ; but I do not 



think this fact would prevent branches which have 



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