630 ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



and the garden of plants in Paris was primarily intended to furnish 

 new designs for court robes. 



One of the most important events, so far as pure science is con- 

 cerned, was the invention of the microscope in 15DU by a Dutchman 

 by the^name of Zacharias Ilauseu. Very soon after came the dis- 

 covery of a fact which is of fundamental importance. Robert Hooke, 

 an Englishman, on examining a piece of charcoal under a micro- 

 scope, found that it was very much like a honey-comb in structure. He 

 says in his quaint language: "If a better microscope be made use of, 

 there will be an infinite company of exceedingly small, and very 

 regular pores, so thick and so orderly set, and so close to one 

 another, that they leave very little room or space between them to 

 be filled with a solid body, for the apparent interstitia or separat- 

 ing sides of these pores seem so thin in some places, that the tex- 

 ture of a honey-comb cannot be more porous." To these pores he 

 gave the name of cells, and thus the cellular nature of the plant 

 organism was recognized. This fact lies at the bottom of our knowl- 

 edge of the structure of plants. 



It was known from a very early time that the stem of a tree is 

 not homogeneous throughout, but that it consists of different layers, 

 such as the rind, wood and bark. With the invention of the micro- 

 scope these parts came to be scrutinized more closely. At first, 

 it was the dead framework which, because more conspicuous, was 

 considered the most important. It was the walls to which Hooke 

 referred when he used the term cell. It is only within recent times 

 that the real living portion within the cell, which accomplishes all 

 the wonders of the vegetable world, received due attention. It is a 

 most delicate film lining the inside of the wall. It may be compared 

 to a snail, while the wall itself is simply the dead shell. It took 

 many years of laborious research to ascertain that the vital part 

 of every cell is the slimy mass which escaped detection for centu- 

 ries after the cellular nature of the plant had been recognized. The 

 many and still continuing observations m this direction show that 

 there is a marvelous degree of complexity in this living substance, 

 termed protoplasm. The highest powers of the microscope have 

 shown that in itself it is an intricate network, with parts within 

 parts. Indeed the mechanism of a watch is crude compared with 

 the intricacies of living protoplasm; besides the latter is automatic 

 from the time it enters into existence. It requires no winding 

 of the spring; until its death it receives its chief impetus from 

 within, living in harmony with the surrounding cells, helping and 

 being helped. Its activity finds expression in the opening leaf- 

 bud, in the evolution of the floral parts, in the climbing tendril, in 

 the downward path of elaborated food, in the upward path of the 

 crude sap, in the search for moisture by the root, in the movements 

 of the sensitive plant, in the ripening of the fruit, in fact, all those 

 phenomena which make plant life so remarkable. 



It is a well-known fact that the vegetable world is dependent upon 

 certain external conditions, and the success of the gardener depends 

 largely upon his ability to regulate these conditions. It is a point 

 where the horticulturist and the scientist meet on common ground. 

 The scientist concerns himself with all the phenomena of the plant 

 organism, irrespective of practical applicability, and Ms problem 



