MOVEMENTS OF NUTRIENT MATTERS, 845 
thereby demonstrate that they are the channels of this 
movement. A minority of these exceptions again makes 
evident that the sieve-cells are the path of transfer, for, as 
Hanstein has shown, in certain plants (Solanacex, Asclep- 
jade, etc.,) sieve-cells penetrate the pith unaccompanied 
by any other elements of the vascular bundle, and girdled 
twigs of these plants grow above as well as beneath the 
wound, although all leaves above the girdled place be cut 
off, so that the nutriment of the buds must come from be- 
low the incision. 
The substances which are organized in the foliage of a 
plant, as well as those which are imbibed by the roots, 
move to any point where they can supply a want. Car- 
bohydrates pass from the leaves, not only downwards, to 
nourish new roots, but upwards, to feed the buds, flowers, 
and fruit. In case of cereals, the power of the leaves to 
gather and organize atmospheric food nearly or altogether 
ceases as they approach maturity. The seed grows at the 
expense of matters previously stored in the foliage and 
stems (p. 218,) to such an extent that it may ripen quite 
perfectly although the plant be cut when the kernel is in 
the milk, or even earlier, while the juice of the seeds is 
still watery and before starch-grains have begun to form. 
In biennial root-crops, the root is the focus of motion 
for the matters organized by growth during the first year; 
but in the second year the stores of the root are com- 
pletely exhausted for the support of flowers and seed, so 
that the direction of the movement of these organized 
matters is reversed. In both years the motion of water is 
always the same, viz., from the soil upwards to the leaves.* 
The summing up of the whole matter is that the nutri- 
* The motion of water is always upwards because the soil always contains 
more water than the air. Ifa plant were so situated that its roots should 
steadily lack water while its foliage had an excess.of this liquid, it cannot be 
doubted that then the ‘sap’ would pass down in a regular flow. In this case, 
nevertheless, the nutrient matters would take their normal course. 
15* 
* 
