CHAPTER III. 



WHY PLANTS GROW, WHAT THEY ARE MADE FOR, AND WHAT THET DO 



2G1. "We have now become acquainted with all the organs of plants, both those 

 concerned in their life and growth, or vegetation, and those concerned in multiplying 

 their numbers, that is, in reproduction. The first being the root, stem, and leaves ; 

 tlie second, the flowers (essentially the stamens and pistils), with their result, fruit 

 and seed. We have learned, also, how plants grow from the seed, produce part 

 after part, branch after branch, and leaf after leaf, and at length blossom and go to 

 seed. We see that plants, witli their organs, that is, instruments, are a kind of liv- 

 ing macliines at work ; and it is now time to ask. How they operate, What they bring 

 to pass, and What is the object or the result of their doings. Such questions as these, 

 young people, with their curiosity awakened, would be likely to ask, and they 

 ought to be answered. To understand these things completely, one must know 

 something of chemistry and vegetable anatomy,* — which we do not propose here 

 to teach. But a general account of the matter may be given in a simple way, 

 which shall be perfectly intelligible, and may give a clear idea of the purpose which 

 plants were created to fulfil in the world, and how they do it. Let us begin by 

 considering 



262. Tk Plant in Action. Take any hving plant, — it matters not what one, — 

 and consider what it is doing. For greater simplicity, take some young plant or 

 seedling, where vegetation goes on just as in a full-grown herb or tree, only on a 

 smaller scale. The plant is 



263. Absorbing, or drawing in what it lives upon, from the soil and the air. This 

 is moisture, air, and other matters which the rain, as it soaks into the ground, may 

 have dissolved on its way to the roots. It is by the roots, lodged in the damp soil, 

 that most of the moisture which plants feed upon is taken in, and with this they 

 always get some earthy matter. This earthy matter makes the ashes which are 

 left after burning a piece of wood, a leaf, or any part of a plant. Moisture is 



* After studying this chapter, the pupil will be ready to learn more of the subject in the Lessons in 

 Botany and Vegetable Physiology. Lessons 22, 23, 24, and 25 treat of Vegetable Anatomy j and Lesson 

 26, of the Plant doing its work. 



