Plants and their children

by Frances Theodora Parsons

But when a leaf is studied on its own tree, one sees that its shape is the very best that could be imagined for its position.

And in the smaller plants we notice this same thing.

And when you remember that Leaf Green cannot feed the plant unless Sunbeam comes to her assistance, you realize how necessary it is that each leaf be within the reach of Sunbeam’s visits.

LEAVES AND ROOTS

You will be surprised to learn that the way in which a plant’s leaves grow tells us something of the way in which its roots grow.

Many of you have been overtaken far from home in a rainstorm, and have sought shelter under a spreading tree. The ground directly beneath the tree has kept almost dry even after some hours of rain, but the earth just under the tips of the spreading branches got very wet: for the great tree acted like a large umbrella; and when the raindrops fell upon the smooth leaves, which sloped outward and downward, they rolled from leaf to leaf till they reached the very lowest, outermost leaves of all. From these they fell to the ground, just as the drops that gather upon your umbrella run outward and downward to the umbrella’s edge, and then off upon the ground.

So you can see that the circle of earth which marks the spread of the branches above must be specially wet, as it received a great part of the rain which fell upon the whole tree.

And whenever you see a tree which sheds the rain water in such a circle, you can be pretty sure that, if you should dig into the earth a ditch which followed this circle, you would soon reach the tips of the new root branches of the tree.

You know that the root does the drinking for the plant; and only the newest parts of the root, the fresh root tips, are really good for work of this sort. You remember that the earth food is carried up the stem to the leaves in a watery broth; and that if the water supply should give out, the new plant cells would not get the broth which helps them to grow, and to put out other cells, and so to build up the plant.

Now, as only the new root branches, near their tips, are able to drink, if the water should leak through the earth in equal quantities everywhere, much of it would be wasted; but when this water is collected in certain spots within reach of the new root branches, there is good reason to believe that these will be able to satisfy their thirst.