PLANT-LIFE 



CHAPTER I 



INTRODUCTORY — ASEXUAL PLANTS 



In the beginning — Protoplasm. This wonderful sub- 

 stance, which Huxley has aptly called " the physical 

 basis of life," received its name at the hand of Mohl of 

 Tubingen in 1846. The term is derived from two Greek 

 words — frotos, first; plasma, form. Protoplasm is a 

 slimy, gelatinous substance, of uncertain chemical con- 

 stitution, fundamental to the existence of both plants 

 and animals. It is known to contain carbon, nitrogen, 

 oxygen, hydrogen, and some sulphates and phosphates 

 of magnesium, potassium, and calcium; but no chemist 

 has combined these constituents in such a way as to 

 form living protoplasm. Besides the chemical com- 

 ponents, the chemist has to reckon with the great factor 

 Life — and Life is distinctly elusive. We have to bear 

 in mind that the chemist in analyzing protoplasm must 

 necessarily kill it in the process; he analyzes a corpse, 

 from which the chief glory, Life, has been dismissed. 

 Even supposing that the constituents of dead proto- 

 plasm may be combined in the laboratory in such a way 

 that living protoplasm results, are we to conclude that 

 Life has been created, that it would be a laboratory 

 product ? Such a conclusion is by no means inevitable, 



I 



