164 WHAT IS A PLANT? 



One word of caution. We do not strive to show any origin of 

 animals from plants. Were that so, the lowest animal form would 

 be most nearly related to the highest form among plants, whereas 

 it is among the lowest forms on both sides that we find such per- 

 plexing similarity both in form and function. As Dr. Wilson puts 

 it, " The two series form a tree, with two branches, diverging most 

 widely at their highest forms " ; they become more parallel as we 

 - descend the scale, meeting below in the root of the tree ; the 

 speck of protoplasm, which, differentiated and guided by the 

 Divine Hand which governs all life, is directed along either the 

 animal or the plant branch. Should further research show a close 

 union of these first parallel and afterwards divergent lines of life, 

 and entire inability to primarily separate the one from the other in 

 many instances, this result will not lessen the fascination which 

 the study of life and its wonders possesses for us. Nay, more. 

 We shall not have less of reverence for Him who, behind and 

 above all forces and powers, ever stands as the primary cause of 

 all power and force ; the one Law-giver, behind all the laws of His 

 marvellous universe ; the Maker of all the " atoms," whose con- 

 course is 7iot " fortuitous," let the theorists say what they may. 

 The more we study the intricacy, delicacy, and beauty of the 

 varied creations of a Power, which, although we cannot compre- 

 hend, we are, through that very study, constrained to believe in, 

 the more surely shall we be led reverently, silently, and lovingly, to 



" Look through Nature up to Nature's God." 

 London; February, i88^. 



Notes. 



I. — Presence of Starch (p. 78). Radiolarian yelloiu-cells. 

 These are now definitely known to be parasites, in the form of 

 unicellular algge. Geddes, in 1882, confirmed the views of Cien- 

 kowski in 1871, Hertwig in 1879, and Hamann in 1881 ; he pro- 

 poses the name Philozoon as the generic name of these algae. He 

 shows that the parasitic Philozoon renders service to the Radiola- 

 rian by supplying it with starch by osmosis, by evolving nascent 

 oxygen into the surrounding animal tissue, and by nourishing the 

 host in virtue of being digested by it after death ; receiving as its 



