BOTANY. 



83 



the appearance of linen, sugar, or rubber, for instance, to remind one 

 of their vegetable origin. But when we remember that food, fuel, 

 clothing, building material, furniture, oils, paper, medicines, rubber, 

 and hosts of other essential materials, are derived from plants, we 

 get a hint of the breadth and universality of the vegetable kingdom. 

 Without plant-life, man, as we know him, would not be. 



The raw material required for the purposes mentioned is built 

 up by chemical action and stored in one part or another of a plant. 

 Plants are therefore so many laboratories engaged in the manufacture 

 of all kinds of chemical bodies which man is slowly learning to con- 

 vert to their best use. Through successive centuries these discoveries 

 have been made — first by accident, then by experience, and finally 

 by intelligent investigation. The dearest ambition of botanists is 

 to penetrate into the inner recesses of these laboratories of Nature, 

 to discover there her secret processes and to employ her forces to 

 carry out their own designs. The labour of Nature is the cheapest 

 in the world, and correctly handled she does not go on strike. 



Primitive man must have wandered like an animal, relying upon 

 Nature to supply his appetite for vegetable food and other necessities 

 of life. 



Necessity and instinct taught him to protect and eventually to 

 cultivate those plants which best satisfied his needs. Judging by 

 our own conservatism to-day in the matter of food, one would imagine 

 that when a plant was once found that was nourishing and easily 

 grown, little heed would be given to the cultivation of other plants. 

 Interchange took place among neighbours, and introductions were 

 made by conquerors, so that in process of time a considerable number 

 of nourishing plants have been evolved. We know, however, that 

 the number of plants cultivated for food is very insignificant com- 

 pared with the many still capable of important development. There 

 is still an immense field for experiment in this respect. 



In many large areas throughout the world the great reserves of 

 the vegetable kingdom still await investigation with all their possi- 

 bilities of improvement and development. 



Under cultivation many kinds of plants have appreciated out 

 of all resemblance to their original form. Most cultivated plants 

 are recognizable in a much more elementary form. 



The necessity for adaptation to new conditions of climate and 

 soil has effected remarkable modifications in some instances, and 

 striking transformations have resulted from cross-breeding between 

 plants of the same family. In the prosecution of such experiments 

 the future holds equally interesting promise. 



Many valuable varieties of plants have been produced by haphazard 

 hybridization. Small insects have been responsible for many such 

 productions, whether new flowers of much beauty, fruit of improved 

 flavour, trees of exceptional size or quickness of growth, or varieties 

 of edible plants capable of resisting disease and drought. The 

 latent qualities in plants which a casual insect may unlock have 



