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ESSENTIALS OF COLLEGE 
BOTANY 
CHAPTER I 
PROTOPLASM AND PLANT CELLS 
CYTOLOGY 
1. Protoplasm. Plants, like animals, possess as their 
living portion a soft, viscid, more or less granular sub- 
stance called protoplasm. This living matter makes up, 
ordinarily, only a rather small proportion of the total 
substance of the larger plants, being present in larger 
proportion in the smaller, simpler organisms. In the 
rapidly growing parts of plants it is far more abundant 
than in the fully developed organs. 
2. Protoplasm, when studied under high magnifica- 
tions with the use of certain stains, is found not to be a 
homogeneous substance but to occur in various forms 
as follows: (1) Cytoplasm. This is the bulk of the pro- 
toplasm and that which probably performs most of its 
ordinary functions. It is less dense than the other forms, 
being often of about the consistency of the white of an 
egg. It appears to consist of a clear, more or less liquid 
portion in which are imbedded innumerable granules of 
all sizes, from those easily visible under moderately high 
magnification to those barely visible at the highest possi- 
ble magnification. (2) Nucleus. This is a somewhat 
denser portion of the protoplasm, usually of definite 
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