INTELLIGENCE OF THE CELL 219 



division of labor. As the first step in the division of labor, 

 we might suggest the volvox, a green globule about the 

 size of a pin head, consisting of a number of cells. Most 

 of the cells in this animal have taken charge x)f nutrition 

 and locomotion and a few others of reproduction." 



You see it is just as natural for these individuals to see 

 the benefit of specializing, as it is for us to let each one 

 or each crowd look after his particular line of work. We 

 never stop to consider all the different matters to be 

 looked after in maintaining a plant or animal. There is 

 the simple matter of keeping the animal at even temper- 

 ature, regardless of the temperature of the surrounding 

 atmosphere ; there must be some method to retain or 

 drive out the heat from the plant or animal. The follow- 

 ing article by Mr. Bastin in the Scientific American is in- 

 teresting : 



"In the first place the process of respiration is associ- 

 ated with considerable liberation of heat, as in germinat- 

 ing seeds, which show a difference of 2 degrees Fahr. in 

 peas. The respiration of the seeds involves the taking 

 in of oxygen and the giving out of carbon dioxide, the 

 same process as that in animals. It is the habit of the 

 Alpine plant, Soldanmillas, to start active growth early 

 in the Spring before the snow goes away, yet owing to 

 the large amount of heat which is liberated by the shoot- 

 ing flower, these are able to bear their way up through 

 the snow. The flower stalks are very slender which is 

 simply owing to the heat they liberate that they can make 

 their way through the snow crust which is generally ex- 

 ceedingly hard. Where the snow is very deep, they do 

 not reach the surface at all but expand in a cavity which 

 they have thawed out in shape of a dome where they 

 blossom and develope their pollen. 



"Experiments have shown that inside the spathe of the 



