276 THE BIOC08M08 PARTICULARIZED. 



metabolism. The humblest unicellular Ani- 

 mal has already some kind of mouth for in- 

 gesting food, stomach for digesting it, vacuole 

 for ejecting waste. The Plant has the same 

 general process, but requires different aliment 

 and employs different organs. This vegetal 

 food is mostly liquid and inorganic ; still there 

 are not a few Plants which live on decayed or- 

 ganisms (saprophytes) ; organic life feeds 

 also the parasitic and insect-catching Plants. 

 Suggestive in this connection is the dual 

 character of the Euglena, an infusorian. Its 

 assimilative apparatus is double, both that 

 of the Plant and of the Animal, and it can 

 employ either or seemingly both. It can take 

 carbon dioxide and mineral salts by means of 

 its chlorophyll, like a Plant. But it has also 

 a mouth, gullet, stomach and vacuole, like an 

 Animal. Which is it, Plant or Animal? Nat- 

 uralists divide on the question. It is to be ob- 

 served that this true amphibian (which word 

 means double-lived), is not the early phyto- 

 zoon, in which the Plant and Animal are not 

 yet differentiated, but the bifurcation has 

 .taken place and tTie two lines have developed 

 into pronounced difference. Yet in the pres- 

 ent case these two lines, Plant and Animal, 

 unite into a single living thing with a double 

 organism, conjoint twins of Plant and Ani- 

 mal. Such a bi-corporal life seems unique 

 but has its suggestion for what is coming. 



