Arizona weekly citizen., 1890-05-03
FOR THE CHILDREN.
An Interesting Botanical Essay
NoGMEs, Ariz., April 22, 1890.

ED. CITIzEN:-I am waiting on my slow Company. It is an English Com pany.
 Everything in and surrounding No gales, is green and lovely, reminding one of the books one used to read on vege- table formation, etc.
 A root, stem, and leaves constitute perfect plant, ard are called the organs of vegetation.
 Linnaeus, the celebrated Swedish naturalist, who awoke the study of plants from the sleep of centuries, he of whom it is written His magic pen turned the wilds of Lapland into fairy fields" briefly sums up the distinctions in nature; stones grow; plants grow and live; animals grow and feel"
 The history of the formation of plants We owe to the same source as that from which we derive our knowledge of the origin of man in the opening chapters of the Bible; in the records of the third day, vegetation appears. Following closely upon the dead atoms of matter, the plant holds the middle rank in creative order, being the connecting link between the crust of earth and man. The plant possesses organs and life, 1t has its period of infancy, maturity, and old age, ann finally by the decay of Its tissues, dies, and Is decomposed, in a manner strangely analogous to the animal; but at that stage the resemb- lance ceases.
 The mechanism of the plant is simply an assem blaze of tubs, cells and ducts; and its habitatior, except in some of of the lower orders, as the drifting sea weed, is fixed.
 Uneadowed with the mystery of nerve, instinct, or perception, the senses, which to some extent pervade all animal life, are entirely wanting. The marvels of an inanimats life and circulation, are sustained and carried on in the fbers and tissues of the plant.
 The pores of the roots imbibe their nourishment, which is always ia a fluid form, from the earth; the leaves reach forth for their tribute from the air and the clouds; the friendly sunlight awak- ems the sleeping bud into the open flow CT; contracting fibers fold the delicate petals over the tender germ, to protect it from the harmful influences of the night, and thus wonderfully do the for ces of nature nurture the plant and de- velop its growth. The leaf, though of rapid growth and brief duration, unfold ing with the spring time, and dying with the waning year, Is yet essential to the Fo of Lo ,,-Is H-. fOurished for many centuries. Leaves imbibe air and moisture, and after assi- initiating portion of each for the nour- ishment of the plant, give back to the inhabitants of the animal world thelr own life-sustaining element, viz: oxygen. After the leaf has performed these off ces at its appointed time, the tissues be- come hardened, circulation is retarded by an accumulation of earthly matter, a greater amount of oxygen is consumed by the plant as the nights become long CT, chemically changing the green color ing matter of the leaf to the many hues which paint our autumnal forest with such changsful and glowing tints, The life fluids flow back to the root the leaf falls, and the plant rests until the next season calls forth its verdant life again. These simple processes re- suit in the autum in death, and in spring tima, resurrected life of the tree, and all other forms,of plant life.
 Our modern luXurias of cultivated flowers and fruits are ia a great measure due to the famed hanging gardens of Babylon, long known as one of the Seven Wonders of the World. These gardens were reared by one of the Babyloniap Kings te please the sylvan tastes of his country born queen, a maiden prin cess who pined for the wild woods of her fathers rugged kingdom. Successive terraces, placed upon lofty piers sui ticient in height to admit the tallest trees, with depth of earth suitable for their support, were reared to initiate d mountain slope, and there were gathered all of fiowal tributes which the known world could render.
 With the fall of Babylon, these gar iens were finally destroyed, while the fruits and flowers nurtured there soon degenerated into a state of wilderness. and as such have existed through the intervening centuries. But the germ of higher development remained, and at length civilization endeavored again to give to the world the delicious fruits of old. As some of the results, the Jus cious peach, among other fruits, which may be raised in Arizona, and which re- gales us with its delicate flavor; the harsh crab apple, of which there are many, yields over ], 300 cultivated va rieties; and the descendants of the wild rose of Asia Minor contributed their loveliness to the gardens of the present enlightened world in hundred beauti- ful and fragrant varieties
 Children study, and think of these matters.
 PAUL GREGORY, M. D.