68 
SECOND BOOK. 
HOW A PLANT FEEDS.— I. 
1. When the first root has entered the soil, and 
its root-hairs have grown, and when the leaves 
from the little bud within the seed have forced 
their way into the sunlight, the new plant is fairly 
out in the world and able to supply itself with 
food. 
2 . That it needs food we may be sure, because it 
grows, and it could not do that without taking in 
Bamboo Leaf cut through, showing Cells. (Very highly magnified.) 
something with which to build up and enlarge 
itself. 
3. Let us try to understand, then, what this food 
is, and how the plants get it. You remember that 
the pulp of an orange or shaddock is seen to be 
lying in a very large number of tiny bags, called 
cells. Now, every part of a plant is made up of 
cells, though they are very rarely large enough for 
us to see them with the naked eye, as we can those 
in the ripe orange. 
4. We know that a plant has water in it, for we 
need only to cut or bruise any part of it to find 
that it is moist. In some vegetables nine-tenths of 
