Chapter III

Structure of plants—Mode in which their nourishment
is obtained—Growth and substance of plants—
Production of their substance from the food
they imbibe—Mutual transformations of starch,
sugar, and woody fibre.

From the compound substances, described in the preceding chapter, plants derive the greater portion of the carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, of which their organic part consists. The living plant possesses the power of absorbing these compound bodies, of _decomposing_ them in the interior of its several vessels, and of _recompounding_ their elements in a different way, so as to produce new substances,—the ordinary products of vegetable life. Let us briefly consider the general structure of plants, and their mode of growth.