Personality of plants

THE
CHAPTER XV
Plants and Men
"Our human souls
Cling to the grass and water brooks"
—Athanase
average city man gives little thought
or attention to his vegetable neighbours,
yet their continued existence is quite as vital to
him as the air he breathes. Directly or indi-
rectly he is utterly dependent upon them.
Every time he sits down to a dinner table, he
is paying an unconscious tribute to the food-
producing abilities of plantdom. In a general
way, plants are the world's food producers and
the animals are the consumers. Plants are able
to build up living tissue from inorganic ma-
terial. Animals must prey upon that elaborated
structure to keep themselves alive. Plants
separate oxygen from carbon dioxide and
water, thereby storing up sunshine as potential
energy. Animals reverse the process, and, re-
combining oxygen with the plant tissue, liberate
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