it soaks into the ground and then when the plant needs water the little
roots suck it out of the ground just as you could draw lemonade through
a straw, for every root is supplied with many hair tubes that serve as
straws. These hair tubes often are so small we could not see them
without a microscope, but it is through these tiny tubes the plant
receives nearly all the water it uses.

Other members of the family, the leaves, are kept busy, for they must do
the breathing for the plant, as well as digest the food. You know water
is never quite free from mineral matter, so when the roots draw up the
water from the ground, they also draw up some mineral food for the plant
which is dissolved in the water. Before the plant can make use of this
food, it must be digested by the leaves, much the same as your stomach
must digest the food you eat. That is, it must change it into another
form. But in order that the leaves may do this, they must have plenty
of chlorophyll, which is the green coloring matter of the leaves. This
chlorophyll will grow in the leaves if they have plenty of sunlight, and
if it does not grow the leaves will not be able to digest the food and
the plant will starve. So you see how necessary it is for plants to have
plenty of sunshine, and why they lose their green color and then die if
they are kept away from the light. They really are starved to death.




* * * * *

Flowers are words
Which even a babe may understand.