84 THE SCIENCE OF LIFE. 



CHAPTER VI. 



PROTOPHYTES. 



Let no presuming impious railer tax 

 Creative Wisdom, as if aught was formed 

 In vain, or not for admirable ends. 

 Shall little haughty ignorance pronounce 

 His works unwise, of which the smallest part 

 Exceeds the narrow vision of her mind? 



THOMSON. 



1. VEGETABLE structure has been already character- 

 ized as bioplasm imprisoned, or invested with a cell-wall 

 of cellulose. In some of the simplest forms, or Proto- 

 phytes, each cell is separate from the rest, others form 

 masses of cells in a sort of gelatinous or slimy invest- 

 ment, while other forms exhibit a definite adhesion be- 

 tween the cells, so as to prefigure a regular plant-like 

 structure, although each cell is a repetition of its parent- 

 cell, and is capable of living apart. 



2. The life-history of simplest Protophyte is exem- 



plified in the Pal-. 

 moglcea macrococ- 

 ca, (Fig. 24;) a sort 

 of green scum or 

 slime, growing on 

 damp stones, etc. 

 The microscope 

 shows this to con- 



FIG. 24. Development of Palmoglcea macrococca. sist of a multitude 



