CHAPTER II 

 THE PLANT: A GENERAL INTERNAL VIEW 



22. The Inside of Plants. — A boy in the country broke 

 the stem of a milkweed. Following a country boy's tra- 

 dition, he rubbed a wart with the thick, sticky juice. He 

 looked at that slowly oozing, milk-white fluid and won- 

 dered if it was the blood of the plant. He wondered what 

 was going on in that broken stem. He wondered if it 

 hurt a stem to break it. He wondered what was going 

 on inside the trunks and roots of the trees at the road- 

 side, or in the leaves rustling over his head. Though no 

 one had told him, he knew that these things were alive, 

 like himself or the turtle in his pocket. Their growth 

 proved that. He knew that parts of plants are good to 

 eat. He had proved that by eating them. He knew that 

 many plants possess powers of healing. Was not the 

 milkweed to cure his wart? So, just now, it occurred to 

 him that very interesting things were probably proceed- 

 ing inside of plants, and that important things were to be 

 discovered if one only had eyes like microscopes. He 

 wished that he had them. 



Just now such eyes would be useful to you too, for the 

 inside of plants is your next lesson. The boy was right 

 about important secrets to be discovered there. But be- 

 cause we can discover them only through a microscope, 

 they remain secrets. Their importance is not generally 

 appreciated. 



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