Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  \ 
September,  1917. 
Plant  Textures. 
391 
Who  would  venture  to  presage  the  part  that  these  vitalized  ulti- 
mates,  compared  with  which  a  microscopic  cell  or  a  bacterial  seg- 
ment is  of  mammoth  proportions,  take  in  the  life  functions  that  build 
the  lily  of  the  field?7 
The  Half  Not  Told. — Have  we  searched  the  innermost  crypts, 
even  now  possible,  in  this  attempt  to  present  the  story  of  the  lily  of 
the  field?  Let  us  ask.  Have  we  herein  mentioned  the  alchemy 
that  creates  either  the  exquisite  perfume  exhaled  by  the  flower,  or 
the  active,  toxic  alkaloid  contained  in  its  structural  root?  Have  we 
directed  thought  to  the  green  pigment  of  the  leaf  or  to  the  processes 
of  the  active  cells  that,  in  the  sunlight,  give  to  its  verdure  paint  a 
useful  setting  ?  Have  we  considered  the  function  of  the  pigment  so 
essential  to  vegetable  life?  Have  we  noted  the  formation  or  func- 
tion of  dissolved  juice  content,  such  as  sugar,  or  of  cell  content, 
such  as  acid  or  astringent  ?  Have  we  attempted  to  show  how  "  in- 
organic "  becomes  "  organic  "  in  the  metamorphosis  that  forms  this 
life  tissue  ?  Have  we  ever  ventured  to  ask  what  lies  in  the  transpar- 
ent serum  in  which  the  star  dust  of  micro-infinities  dances,  unseen 
by  the  eye  even  of  the  ultra-microscope,  evasive  to  the  most  sensitive 
chemical  reagent?  Have  we  not  ample  reason  to  rest  content  in 
what  is  mentioned,  accepting  that  "  enough  is  enough  ?  "  May  we 
not  conclude  that,  in  any  study  yet  made  of  any  plant  of  the  myriads 
known,  when  one  considers  the  possibilities  outside  our  present 
limits,  "the  half  has  not  been  told?"  Again  let  me  quote  from 
"Infinities  in  Pharmacy." 
"  Painful  as  the  admission  may  be  we  stand  dumb  before  the 
mystery  of  the  simplest  plant  in  its  living  entirety." 
7  There  are  persons  who  view  such  studies  as  these  as  unnecessary  to 
pharmacy.  Likewise,  there  are  those  who  consider  plant  pharmacy  to  be 
but  a  "  rule  of  thumb  "  process  in  which  the  crudest  churl  stands  shoulder  to 
shoulder  beside  the  deepest  student. 
