CHAPTER VI. 



MICROSCOPIC FORMS OF VEGETABLE LIFE. — PROTOPHTTES. 



178. In commencing our survey of those wonders and beauties 

 of Life and Organization which are revealed to us by the assistance 

 of the Microscope, it seems on every account the most appropriate 

 to turn our attention in the first instance to the Vegetable King- 

 dom ; and to begin with those of its humblest members whose 

 form and structure, and whose very existence in many cases, are 

 only known to us through its use. For such as desire to make 

 themselves familiar with Microscopic appearances, and to acquire 

 dexterity in Microscopic manipulation, cannot do better than edu- 

 cate themselves by the study of those comparatively simple forms 

 of Organization which the Vegetable fabric presents. Again, the 

 scientific Histologist looks to the careful study of the structure of 

 the simplest forms of Vegetation, as furnishing the key (so to 

 speak) that opens the right entrance to the study of the elemen- 

 tary Organization, not merely of the higher Plants, but of the 

 highest Animals. And in like manner, the scientific Physiologist 

 looks to the complete knowledge of their Life-history as furnishing 

 the surest basis for those general notions of the nature of Vital 

 Action, which the advance of science has shown to be really 

 well founded only when they prove equally applicable to both 

 Kingdoms. 



179. But, further, a peculiar interest attaches itself at the 

 present time to everything which throws light upon the debated 

 question of the boundary between the two Kingdoms ; a question 

 which is not less keenly debated among Naturalists, than that of 

 many a disputed frontier has been between adjacent Nations. For 

 many parts of this border-country have been taken and retaken 

 several times ; their inhabitants (so to speak) having first been 

 considered, on account of their general appearance, to belong to 

 the Vegetable Kingdom, — then, in consequence of some movements 

 being observed in them, being claimed by the Zoologists, — then, on 

 the ground of their evidently Plant-like mode of growth, being 

 transferred back to the Botanical side, — then, owing to the sup- 

 posed detection of some new feature in their structure or physiology, 



