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These little bacteria, sometimes called the soil-bacteria, or bacteria of decay, swarm in all kinds of dead vegetable and animal matter, such as leaves, roots, fruits, bodies of animals, fishes, and insects, and cause them to decay or break down and melt away.

In short, nature hath denied the diligent and skilful planter few of the most useful vegetables, and many delicious fruits grow to a degree of perfection exceeded by no country in Europe. Ar the same time it must be acknowledged, that some disadvantages attend the climate with respect to the vegetable kingdom.

Brilliant little butterflies floated in the sunshine everywhere, and contrasted with the repulsive whip-snakes hanging here and there from the branches of the trees. Vegetable and animal life seemed singularly abundant in these hills, so far above the plains of Hindostan towards which we were hastening.

The elevation is about 2,100 feet above the sea; the atmosphere is dry and the soil is sandy. But for some reason the rays of the sun are intensely hot and are fatal to those who are exposed to them without sufficient protection. But this extreme heat is the salvation of the country, and by its own action brings the relief without which all animal and vegetable life would perish.

Beyond this the most meagre indication of vegetable sustenance came to an end, and thenceforward their passage was rendered more slow and laborious by frequent snow-storms, barriers of ice, and sudden tempests which strove to hurl them to destruction.

I can't compete with Miss Pao, in connection with whom something or other about gold or about jade is mentioned. We are simply beings connected with the vegetable kingdom." The allusion to the two words "gold and jade," aroused, of a sudden, much emotion in the heart of Pao-yue.

I have already told you that acids are characterised by what we term an acid reaction upon certain vegetable and artificial colours, whilst bases or basic substances in solution, especially alkalis, restore those colours, or turn them to quite another shade; the acids do the one thing, and the alkalis and soluble bases do the opposite.

It is otherwise with the mass of the soil, that body of commingled decayed rock and vegetable matter which must possess a certain thickness in order to serve its needs. As yet no considerable arrest has been made in the processes which lead to the destruction of this earthy mass. In all countries where tillage is general the rivers are flowing charged with all they can bear away of soil material.

Both had served long in prison, and were old men; but the day's work they were habitually capable of won Mrs. Mortimer's approval. Gow Yum, twenty years before, had had charge of the vegetable garden of one of the great Menlo Park estates. His disaster had come in the form of a fight over a game of fan tan in the Chinese quarter at Redwood City.

We never see them; we only know that they exist by seeing the effects they produce. In all Nature the wonders of the "seen" are dwarfed into insignificance when compared with the majesty and glory of the "unseen." The great sun itself does not supply enough heat and light to sustain animal and vegetable life on the earth.