180 Dynamic Theory. 



vibration is the movement of the ether within the intermolecular spaces. 

 As we shall see, both mineral and organic bodies are subject to this re- 

 arrangement of molecules and of intermolecular spaces by the action of 

 ether waves of one length or another. But we may reasonably expect 

 that the effects are more rapid and effectual in the case of the plastic 

 organic bodies, and observed facts bear out the expectation. 



This will be better understood after reading Chapters 39 and 40. 

 We must distinguish between the function of the chlorophyl bodies 

 and the growth of the roots, deposit of nourishment and repair in the 

 woody stems of plants, also the growth of the flowers and fruits. All 

 these latter processes consume oxygen and form carbonic acid, entirely 

 reversing the action of the chlorophyl bodies. In this, they imitate ani- 

 mal life, and the growth of the fungi. Among the lower cellular plants 

 the Algae, &c. the function of gathering the carbon from the air 

 appertains to all the parts of the plant alike, and the surplus starch is 

 not removed but remains near among the cells where made. But in the 

 higher plants the differentiation of the chlorophyl organisms is accom- 

 panied by the differentiation of places of deposit for the surplus products 

 of their action, and of machinery for the removal and deposition of 

 these products and of their erection into various tissues and organs all 

 which operations require work or are work, and are accompanied by the 

 consumption of carbon and the exhalation of carbonic acid. Night and 

 day, during growth, this exhalation from these parts goes on. In the 

 night it goes on from the green chlorophyl bodies themselves, because 

 during that time the tissues of these organisms are being repaired, and 

 the matters wasted by daily work are being replaced. 



Chlorophyl has been spoken of all along as green. But there is also 

 red chlorophyl. This occurs in the red protococsus, a minute alga 

 which gives color to the waters of the Red Sea and to the red snow of 

 Greenland. 



There is also yellow chlorophyl and blue chloroph}^! called, respec- 

 tively, Xanthophyl and Cyanoph}^. Chlorophyl has been separated 

 and shown to be made up of these two, as green color generally can be 

 formed by the combination of yellow and blue. It is questionable to 

 what extent these yellow and blue protoplasms may be concerned sepa- 

 rately in the formation of starch. The probability, it seems to me, is 

 that the first action of light upon the mass protoplasm of the young 

 growing plant is the formation of the yellow colored bodies, and that they 

 are possessed of limited power in the absorption of carbon, subsequently 

 they are reinforced by the later development under stronger light of the 

 blue matter, the mixture with which produces the green color. The 

 chlorophyl is reduced to its yellow skeleton by the withdrawal of sun- 

 light, or the proper amount of moisture, or the proper amount of heat, 



