The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-01-22


 bei1fg' who could be rooted to one spot
 and carry on successfully the task of
 finding food.
 In one of the big cases in the model
 room is seen the leaf of a plant en-
 larged many times by the aid of the mi-
 croscope. By the model the leaf IS seen
 to be a complex creation instead of a
 thin and simple bit of green web.
 That which appears so thin as to have
 no use, except, perhaps, shade for the straggler who chances to rest beneath
 it, Is equipped with one of the most in-
 teresting sets of machinery ever de-
 vised. The surface of the leaf is the l feeder of the plant. From the air is
 taken the carbonic acid gas upon which
 the plant lives. When the gases are l taken into the interior of the leaf, and
 in that insignificant space, chemical
 process is accomplished whereby car-
 bon and some of the attendant gases | that the plant thrives on are converted linto a form Of starch which in turn is 1 fed to the tree, and from which it
 builds it's foliage, branches, flowers and | It's wood.
 The idea prevails in some quarters that the tree feeds from the material
 that the roots find in the ground. But
 that is mistake. The plant feeds upon the carbon doxide and nitrogen and other gases of the atmosphere, and they find in the earth limited amount of material, among which are salts of potash, lime the phosphates, and other things which, while trfling in quality, are essential to the growth and thrift of the plant. Probably as much as nine- ty per cent of all that the plant feeds upon, and perhaps even more, is taken from the air by the curious openings in the leaf, which are shown in rude way by the models in the museum. By the intricate organs inside the leaf it Is made into the living material which is the growing plant, and which in the course of development, through being again food for those who live upon vegetable substances, becomes the ma terial of which animal life is made.
 The plant leaf is the origin of all life, except that crude formation which is not yet highly enough organized to feed l upon plants, or which is primitive l form of plant life itself. The plant leaf | provides food for the vegetable king | dom; and the animal world. directly or | indirectly, lives upon the vegetable | world. With vegetation wiped off the l earth, creation would be followed by | universal dearth All of the other ma chimes which the models in the museum stand for have their beginning in the plant leaf, which is the interesting fountain of existence.
 We do not study the common things olo rl,o ,,1o ,,% the animal, but the animal sustains the plant. In another part of the museum is a splendid model of a bee. The bee makes honey and provides the human family with wholesome and appeti- zing food. Honey Is largely sugar, and sugar is chiefly carbon. But the car bon has passed through a peculiar L chemistry, and 1t possesses the proper ties of taking on the life of the human being and becoming part of the liv- ing flesh and blood. The bee gathers the honey, from which we get sugar as it is eaten. Plants also gather sugar and offer it in different form. But the bee is necessary visitor to the f plants. She comes with her remarkable honey making machinery, and as she steals the sweets from the flowers she ! carries away with her the pollen of the flower, which fertilizes another flower, and fruit is the result Without fruit to perpetuate the growth of the plant the variety becomes extinct. Without the bee to distribute the pollen the plant dies out. The bee, instead of be- ing a robber, is a valued agent, and no wonder the flower pays him literally in honey for his unintentional task.
 The bee is not as intelligent as the plant, for the bee will gather some abominations occasionally along with honey. The plant never makes a mis- take The leaf that grows upon an ap- ole tree never brings to the plant the from which to make peach seed. It always abstracts from the air he right quantity and the right quality 1 . If gases whereby to make an apple, and he variety of apples which should grow lpon the tree. If 1t is a sweet apple the are taken with which to make weet apples and the proportions of su- gar and starch and acids are always correctly mixed. No man ever knew a rec to shift the quality. Year after -ear we can feel assured that the same olors, the same flavors the same sur , ace markings the same shapes, will be ound on the tree. Plums are of the anne family as the peach, and while hey have many family relatives, they lever mistake themselves. The .Dam- on plum never bears Niagaras The eaf always takes on the right quanti- ies of food and performs its operations I the proper manner But the bee will nal1e honey sometimes from flowers hat are so obnoxious as to make the 1hole colony sick. More brainy ami lals than the bee will do as badly. heep often come home with their ongues swelled up from eating the olson laurel. Dogs which are looked pon as the most intelligent among the ,wer animal creation, eat poison until le dog poisoner has place among the ests of the country. The fox, the 'iliest of the beasts of the forest, which \ i'll be trapped in no other way is N aught with bit of poison as easily as string of suckers. But the plant leaf