HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



13 



SOME OBSERVATIONS RESPECTING 

 VEGETABLE PROTOPLASM. 



By F. NEWHAM. 



I NEVER gaze through my microscope upon that 

 simple, unprepossessing mucilage,, known as 

 protoplasm or bioplasm, without feelings in my mind 

 somewhat akin to awe, or in a sense reverence : it 

 is a fact marvellous beyond all conception or 

 imagination, that this delicate substance has done 

 more than almost any other agency to alter the 



locomotive that flies along our railways, the cable 

 that transmits thought by lightning from land to 

 land, the mighty cities, centres of civilized life that 

 stud the face of the globe — are alike products of 

 protoplasm ! and were the silent ceaseless operations 

 of this factor to be slackened in destruction, that 

 minister to the daily progress of the world, these 

 grand monuments of being and civilization would 

 utterly perish. To the activity of vegetable pro- 

 toplasm, we are indebted for the heat-energy that 

 moves the machinery of thousands of manufactories. 





Fig. 13. — Living cell from petal of Viola tricolor. 

 p, protoplasm ; n, cell-wall ; a", nucleus ; n"\ nu- 

 cleoli ; v, vacuole. (Much magnified.) 



Fig. 14. — Nearly mature spo- 

 rangium of Saprolegnia. 

 (Much magnified.) 



Fig. is. — Nearly mature sporangium 

 of Saprolegnia ; zoospores emerged. 

 (Much magnified.) 



appearance, and even the physical aspect of our 

 planet : protoplasm is not only the vehicle of life, 

 the power that clothes the everlasting hills with 

 verdure, the plains with forests, and peoples the 

 land and water with myriad animal beings — but by 

 a broad yet true generalisation, all the achievements 

 of civilization, of literature, of thought, the produc- 

 tions of art, of mechanical and;engineering skill, may 

 be ultimately traced to this one apparently feeble and 

 insignificant source. It may be said without trans- 

 gressing against reason, that the poetry of Shakespeare, 

 the music of Handel, the genius of Newton, the 



evolving the food-stuffs, fabrics, and articles of 

 utility that contribute to our daily comfort. 



In order to study the primary, or elementary form 

 of protoplasm, we must have recourse to the vegetable 

 cell for several reasons, e.g. , the physiology of veget- 

 able protoplasm is the simplest form of living func- 

 tion with which we ate acquainted ; again, without 

 vegetable protoplasm, animal protoplasm could not 

 exist, seeing that animals are sustained by the chemical 

 force, accumulated in vegetable food-products by the 

 activity of vegetable protoplasm. It is very easy to- 

 demonstrate the presence of protoplasm in any living 



