BOTANY OF TO-DAY 



CHAPTER I 



GENERAL 



The Botany of to-day is a vast subject, and intricately 

 connected with almost every art and craft that man has 

 ever invented. It is also an infinitely varying and com- 

 plexly developing science, dealing not merely with the 

 discoveries of mankind but with life itself. 



But what sort of life it is that vegetables possess, 

 remains an insoluble mystery. 



Under the microscope we can make out that all plants 

 are made up of the minute compartments called cells, 

 in which one finds a colourless, slimy, living matter 

 " protoplasm " or " life slime." We have advanced 

 considerably in our knowledge of the various methods 

 by which we can stain or harden this protoplasm ; we 

 are beginning to suspect that the complexity of its 

 atoms (if it has an atom) is almost beyond our compre- 

 hension ; we know, crudely, what it will do when given 

 certain solutions, under various temperatures, under an 

 electric shock and at various atmospheric pressures ; 

 modern microscopes have also revealed an extraordinary 

 amount of unexplained detail in its apparent structure, 

 but as to what it is, how it lives, dies and reproduces 

 itself, we are still in a state of hopeless ignorance. 



17 B 



