Nor does the work of plants stop here. If it did, they would be not unlike a commission merchant who had gathered from the four corners of the earth a supply of eggs only to find he could not or more likely would not sell them all at once, and yet had failed to provide himself with proper storage. Plants, too, have times in their life when adequate storage is necessary for them. So true is this that unless there is food enough stored in seeds to give a start to seedlings before their own roots begin to work, they would die almost at once. In seeds and in many nearly dormant parts of plants these foods are stored away for future use. The tubers of potatoes and all our root crops, like beet and parsnip, are common examples of this. Even the manufacture of wood in the trunks of trees is a storage appliance on the part of the plant, for wood is just as much one of the food products of a plant as wheat or rice. 3. BORROWING FROM THE LIVING AND ROBBING FROM THE DEAD With such a beautifully perfected mechanism for getting food it might seem as though all plants would be satisfied to lead that life of independence for which they are so splendidly equipped. Some of them, however, are like men in one respect: there seems to be no end to the chase after getting something for nothing. Those that stand on their own roots, get their food honestly, and take nothing for which they do not make prodigal returns, make up the great bulk of the vegetation of the earth. Their independence has dubbed them with the title [Illustration: INDIAN PIPE. (_Monotropa uniflora_). A saprophytic plant inhabiting rich woods in eastern North America. (_Courtesy of Brooklyn Botanic Garden._)] [Illustration: THE PARTRIDGE BERRY (_Mitchella repens_), a trailing vine of northern forests. (_Courtesy of Brooklyn Botanic Garden._)] [Illustration: RAFFLESIA. ONE OF THE STRANGEST PRODUCTS OF THE RAIN FOREST. It consists only of a giant flower, the largest in the world, which is attached directly to the roots or stems of relatives of the grape, upon which it is parasitic. (_After Kerner and Oliver. Courtesy of Brooklyn Botanic Garden._)] autophytes_, literally solitary or self-providing plants, and this thrifty mode of life is called _autophytic_. But a few kinds of plants, actually many millions of individuals, have more devious ways of getting their food and provide strong contrast to their sturdier associates.