94 Field, Forest, and Wayside Flowers 
The asparagus, when it makes its début, is of a 
bluish or purplish color, and the sprouting beets 
are of a rich Tyrian red, too sumptuous for such 
plebeians. 
But as soon as the leaves come out into the 
sunlight, chlorophyll begins to form in them, and 
they grow greener and greener. 
In some of the smaller fresh-water alge the 
chlorophyll bodies are flattened plates of very dis- 
tinctive and beautiful forms (Fig. 17). But those 
which color the leaves of the wood are generally 
disk-shaped or oval, and are often called ‘‘ grains” 
of chlorophyll. 
Whatever its shape, the chlorophyll body consists 
of two substances, the green coloring-matter itself, 
and a small, dense, jelly-like mass which holds it. 
If a leaf is put into alcohol the spirit draws 
the coloring-matter out of the chlorophyll bodies, 
and the leaf gradually becomes pallid while the 
liquor in which it flows shows a deepening tinge of 
green. 
Now if we examine a piece of the leaf tissue 
with a powerful microscope we shall see that the 
chlorophyll bodies are still there, and are un- 
changed in form and size, but the green pigment 
which tinted them is gone. 
