PROTOPLASM. 



659 



736. The pine. 



upon plant-life. But of all the necessary conditions the first created thing 

 is the most necessary light. Without light the plant is nothing. 



Plants have many points of similarity 

 with animals. They live, they possess organs, 

 their compositions contain similar substances, 

 such as carbon and albumen, and close chemical 

 analyses have found the existence of the ele- 

 ments oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, and carbon 

 in animals and plants. Therefore water must 

 play a conspicuous part in all. Professor 

 Huxley puts this question in his usual clear 

 fashion. He says : 



" It is a very remarkable fact that not 

 only are such substances as albumen, gluten, 

 fibrin, and syntonin known exclusively as 

 products of animal and vegetable bodies, but 

 that every animal and every plant at all 

 periods of its existence contains one or other of them, though in other 

 respects the composition of living bodies may vary indefinitely. Thus some 

 plants contain neither starch nor cellulose, though these substances are found 

 in some animals ; while many animals contain no horny matter and no 

 gelatine-yielding substance. So that the matter which appears to be the 

 essential foundation of both the animal and the plant, is the proteid united 

 with water, though it is probable that in all animals and plants these are 

 associated with more or less fatty and amyloid (starchy and saccharine) 

 substances, and with very small quantities of certain mineral bodies, of which 

 the most important appear to be phosphorus, iron, lime, and potash. 



Thus there is a substance composed of 

 water, plus ptoteids,//itf fat, phis amyloids, 

 phis mineral matters, which are found in 

 all animals and plants. When these are 

 alive this substance is termed PROTO- 

 PLASM." 



We have taken the liberty to extract 

 the above paragraph, as it expresses in a 

 few words, and very clearly, the common 

 origin of plants and animals. We will now 

 consider the conditions of plant life. Heat, 

 light, and moisture are the principal neces- 

 saries, with of course air and certain earthy 

 matter. Some plants, like some few ani- 

 mals, live in darkness, such as truffles and 

 rig. 737.-The ar. fungi, as do cave-fish and bats. But this 



is the exception, and the sense in which plants (or animals) can exist with- 

 out lisrht is a very restricted one, and only to be sustained at the expense of 



