You see, it is different parts of protoplasm at work that does this; one part—that in the chlorophyll bodies—is attracting carbon dioxide, breaking it up, and casting out oxygen. Other protoplasm in the cells outside the chlorophyll bodies attracts and uses the oxygen, while the carbon dioxide comes to the stomata from different parts of the plant as a waste material, just as it comes to the cells of our lungs to be cast out.
So plants, by breathing, make the air a little impure, but they destroy or break up so much more carbon dioxide than they make that on the whole they act as powerful purifiers of the air.
When we think of the great forests of the tropics, all overgrown with luxuriant vegetation, we may remember that those tangles of vines and trees and strange growths are our friends no less than the grass and bushes in our dooryard.
For there is a carrier always at work bringing the pure air to us and carrying away the impure air which we create. This carrier is the air currents. The great winds sweep about the earth, bearing the oxygen from the forests to the crowded cities, and sweeping away the carbon dioxide from the cities to the fields and woods. The winds, too, stir up the water where the water plants and fishes live, and help keep it full of air for the things in it to breathe; the tides and currents help, so as far down in the water as there are living things, you may be sure there is air for them to breathe. There would not be air enough for you, because you need so much; but for them there is plenty.
Swirling around the earth go the winds, carrying the oxygen to the people and the carbon dioxide to the plants, for the plants are as glad to get the carbon dioxide we breathe out as we are to get the oxygen they give off.
And we are glad, when we come to think about it, that we are able to give them something in return for all they give to us.
You see, we need each other,—plants and people, and the winds are friends to us both.
WHAT ARE THE FLOWERS MADE OF?
