Mountain Home maverick. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1906-1911, 1907-04-25
THE L|FE=ACTION
OF VEGETATION
of the Organism Upon
Heat. Food. Air
and Water.

upon the oxygen and carbon dioxid,
which they take from the air and
water, and upon sunlight, heat and
good air. Deprive the plant of any
of these, and it cannot live So del
icate, indeed, is the organism of the
living plant that small and imper-
ceptible amounts of coal gas in the
afr near broken gas mains will
prove fatalfto it; noxious gases of
any kind seriously effect it even
when their amount may be SO
small as to escape chemical tests
for them; while the relatively
small proportion of really noxious
gases IN sir1 slightly con arni mated
by smetler fumes, may completely
poison the plant, without being suf
ficient in quantity to affect percep-
tibfy- the people .who breathe this
air. Witness the experience of
Butte, with no living plants, grass
or trees near, and of the damage to
vegetation by the atmosphere sur
grounding our own smelter districts.
The marvel is how lives so tender
or things so fragile should be con-
tinued on the earth's surface
with the amazing regularity and
constancy which we actually be-
hold
A fringe of delicate root-hairs
surrounds each rootlet of the plant.
These hairs are sinlge cells, elon-
gated, from the growing root, ai;c
filled with cell sap and protoplasn.
, Among the soil Particles these
delicae threads find or make their
way. Wherever they come into
contact with moist earth, and that
is practically everywhere, singu-
lar result followsi These hairs
drink in or absorb the moisture that
may be clinging to the soil patti
Giles. They do this by reason of q
peculiar process called esnaosls.
Sunshine vibrates through soil
moisture and Brings into liquid
form fselution) the food of plants,
which is then borne in capillary
currents to the root fibers, whence
it is further carried, also by the
pc wer of sunshine, into the stems
and leaves ABOVE. In what way
When dry prunes or raisins are
put into water, they swell; osmo-
sis is said to have taken place.
When juicy fruits are covered with
sugar, they shrivel; here, too, g
contrary osmosis has occurred.
Pfeffer used a porous clay cell lined
with a membrane. He found on
! filling it with a solution of potas-
Stun nitrata and then placing it in
pure water that the water flowed
into it until it pressed outwards
with a force o three atmospheres-
a force c lual to II e weight of col
umn Of water 100 feet high. This
is the force which presses outward
in the case of the swelled bean or
prune. The flow always takes place
from the thinner into the thicker
loud, and occurs whenever the two
a e separated by a porous mem
brane. The liquid whose molecules
are small enough, passes through
the most rapidly, causing an accu-
mutation within and a pressure
outwards. So, in any plant cell,
as in the leaves where water is
being consumed as food and is evap.
lorating or being changed into some
other SUBSTANCE, the removal o
these molecules from. the solution
for the sake of growth, leaves space
unoccupied, diminishes pressur,
-tfrorn within outward, and causes ;
FLOW of molecules from other9cell
4 lower down in the stem to maxi
4 good the loss III the leaves due +
! the. selective absorption of growth
4 As the root cells have their pres
(, sure reduced by the flow towar'
the place in the leaves where tn
water is being used, they drink il
more of the water surrounding tn
soil grains. If this water contain
nitrates and growth is going on il
the leaves above, this means tina
nitrogen is being changed into seed
and fruits for the use of man
I Still more water is drunk in by tn
roots to make good the loss that &C
ours at the places where the leave
are manufacturing the nitrogenou
foods. Each food substance travel
n somewhat independently of tn
Z others. If evaporation should cease
these currents would continue t
flow only as long as the plant sub
stance is more dense than the plan
food in the water at the roots TIL
, selective power of plants is ex
; pIained by this consumption c
these kinds of PARTICLES which tn