DESTRUCTIVE METABOLISM 31 



of nutrition are respectively characteristic of the two great 

 groups of living things. Animals require solid food con- 

 taining ready-made proteids, and cannot build up their pro- 

 toplasm out of simpler compounds. Green plants, i.e., all 

 the ordinary trees, shrubs, weeds, &c., take only liquid and 

 gaseous food, and build up their protoplasm out of carbon 

 dioxide, water, and mineral salts. The first of these methods 

 of nutrition is conveniently distinguished as holozoic, or 

 wholly-animal, the second as holophytic or wholly-vegetal. 



It is important to note that only those plants or parts of 

 plants in which chlorophyll is present are capable of holo- 

 phytic nutrition. Whatever may be the precise way in which 

 the process is effected, it is certain that the decomposition 

 of carbon dioxide which characterizes this form of nutrition 

 is a function of chlorophyll, or to speak more accurately, of 

 chromatophores, since there is reason for thinking that 

 it is the protoplasm of these and not the actual green pigment 

 which is the active agent in the process. 



Moreover, it must not be forgotten that the decomposition 

 of carbon dioxide is carried on only during daylight, so that 

 organisms in which holophytic nutrition obtains are depend- 

 ent upon the sun for their very existence. While Amoeba 

 derives its energy from the breaking down of the proteids in 

 its food (see p. 12), the food of Hsematococcus is too 

 simple to serve as a source of energy, and it is only by the 

 help of sunlight that the work of constructive metabolism 

 can be carried on. This may be expressed by saying that 

 Haematococcus, in common with other organisms containing 

 chlorophyll, is supplied with kinetic energy (in the form of 

 light or radiant energy) directly by the sun. 



As in Amceba destructive metabolism is constantly going 

 on side by side with constructive. The protoplasm becomes 

 oxidized, water, carbon dioxide, and nitrogenous waste 



