CONTENTS 



PAGE 



PREFACE v 



CHAPTER I 



GENERAL 



What is protoplasm? — Aim of the Plant world — Glacial clay — Fresh 

 lavas — Eruption of Krakatao — Succession of Floras — Tropical 

 jungle as the most complex association — Foliage surfaces — British 

 woods — Co-operation in woodlands — Wood anemone — Co-opera- 

 tion amongst its cells — Struggle for life 17 



CHAPTER II 



SEAWEEDS AND LEAF-GREEN 



Leaf-green or chlorophyll — Its method of working — Green, brown, 

 and red seaweeds — Colours and their importance — Changes in 

 colour — Hot springs — Resistances to 'heat and cold — Arctic and 

 Antarctic seaweeds — Microcystis — Sargasso Sea — Floating marine 

 organisms — Trades' dust — Diatoms — Labrador deposits of diatoms 

 — Phosphorescence at sea — Alcohol and seaweeds — Desmids — 

 Parasites 29 



CHAPTER III 



THE FIRST LAND PLANTS 

 Land algae — Nostoc of gravel — Destruction of nitrogenous matter by 

 fires and explosives — Nostoc and its special bacterial assistant — 

 Nitrogen bacillus — Pliny on beans— Green manures — Tubercles 

 of leguminosae — Nitro-culture — Nitrogen and nitro-bacterine — Pro- 

 fessor Bottomley's experiments and the results — Soil, constitution 

 and air contents — Rich population in hollows, &c. — Bacterial 

 activity — Fungi in soil — Circulation of air — Heavy rain — Frost — 

 Effect of decimating bacilli — Roman bacteria 42 



CHAPTER IV 



BACTERIA 



Germs ubiquitous — Colonies of bacteria— Toxins and antitoxins — 

 Defence of animal bodies — Phagocytes — Opsonins — Pasteur and 

 hydrophobia — Vaccination — Imprisoned bacteria — Phosphorescent 

 forms — Lamps of living germs — Spontaneous combustion — Bacterial 

 colours — Rapidity of development 53 



CHAPTER V 



ROCK LICHENS 



The Trentepohlia forest — Exposure of lichens — Variety of colours — Dust 

 — Destruction of rocks by lichens — Rhizocarpon in chalk— Quartz 

 rock corrosion — Weathering — Slow growth of lichens — Tripe de 

 roche and reindeer moss 63 



ix 



