THE YOUTH’S CABINET.

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155

 

ulated by the warmth and moisture,
throws off its outer husk. A root runs
below, and a stalk shoots above, to bear
the leaves. At the end of the root is a
bunch of small, leech-like vessels, called
spongioles. ‘These- suck up the watery
matter in the soil, and instantly convert
it into water, mucilage, and sugar. ‘The
sap is then taken by an ascending series
of vessels to the leaves, to become pum-
fied. Arrived at the leaves, it absorbs
poisonous air, or carbonic acid gas, from
the atmosphere, and throws off pure air,
or oxygen gas. ‘The perfected sap is
then called proper juice, and is carried
through the plant to supply its wants.
The refuse is thrown out at the roots,
near the spongioles, by another set of
vessels.”

C. “You say it absorbs poisonous
air, and throws out pure air. I should
have thought it would have done exactly
opposite.”

KF. “1 spoke with regard to ourselves.
Leaves are vegetable lungs. The blood
in the lungs of animals throws out car-
bonie acid, and absorbs oxygen. Plants,
by doing the reverse of this, purify the
air for our respiration, and we, in turn,
purify it for them. What is life to one,
is poison to the other, ‘ Astonishing
creation ! says Flint, ‘from which nothing
can be taken without the destruction of
a'l. What an immense distance separates
a blade of grass from man! yet on the
frail tribes of vegetation, by a double
necessity (food and pure air) our lives
depend.’ The Persian poet, Saadi,
wrote a fable, which proves that he un-
derstood, as a philosopher, the harmony
which he sung as a poet. Here is the
book; will you read it, Emily ?”

E. “*A nightingale is imprisoned in a

ized anew by the rose.

 

cage of glass, with a rose-bush in full
bloom. Each gives life to the other.
Deprived of fresh air, the bird would
soon cease to swell his little throat with
harmony. The rose greedily absorbs the
air, which has been rejected by its loved
Philomel, and blushes to brighter tints—
respires, transforms, and returns it pul-
fied, to be again inhaled by the bird,

which again decomposes it, to be neutral-
When the bird
at length expires, singing its dirge of
gratitude, the rose-bush withers and
dies.’ ”’

F. “The proper juice of plants not
only supplies their necessities, but also
affords material out of which to manu-
facture the various essential oils, as the
rose, lemon, and cinnamon ;_ the poisons,
as the upas, oxalic acid, and all other
vegetable compounds.”

C. “I cannot conceive how so many
kinds of plants grow in the same kind of
earth. If their food is the same, why
should they not be all alike?”

F. “ Your mother, and sister, and my-
self, eat the same food ; how is it, then,
that we can be distinguished from each
other? ‘The difference is not in the food,
but in the life-power. Plants are mostly
composed of but four elements—oxygen,
hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbon. ‘The
first two make water, and the last two
are to be found in the atmosphere.
The earth serves more as a support for
the plant, than anything else. The air-
flower of the East Indies is twined on
ribbons, suspended from the ceiling, and
yet, year after year, it sends out the
most beautiful flowers, whose sweet
odors perfume the air, living solely on
the moisture and gases of the atmos-
phere. The refuse from the roots, after