General 



This minute speck of living slime defies our analysis, 

 for it is alive ; it does things of itself, and it certainly 

 does them on purpose. 



This point is far too frequently left out of sight in the 

 botany of to-day. 



We forget that we are dealing with we know not 

 what ; that all protoplasm is a living mystery of whose 

 origin we are utterly ignorant, except that, so far as we 

 know, it never forms, except as a descendant of other 

 living material. 



Organic substances have long ago been produced in 

 chemical laboratories, but even there they are not 

 accidental self-formed products, for they are made by 

 the selection and skill of an intelligent being who is 

 himself a product of live protoplasm cells. 



In another chapter we shall have to notice some of 

 those vague and curious speculations which deal with 

 the soul life or sense life of vegetables. Does the live 

 cell enjoy itself ? Is it conscious of its desires and of 

 its discomfort, say in cold weather or when introduced 

 to some poisonous secretion ? 



But in this first chapter we are not to be entangled 

 in such questions as these, nor shall we wander in those 

 vague and devious speculations which have nevertheless 

 a very distinct and definite interest. 



We do not realise the immensity of the task that lay 

 before the first vegetable cell. Here was the earth, 

 utterly and entirely mineral, without the slightest trace 

 or touch of organic matter, neither " soil" in the 

 gardener's sense nor bacteria ; the water was without 

 micro-organisms, and the land was original rock, barren 

 sand, or bare mud. 



The author once had the opportunity of seeing on 

 a large scale the extraordinary difference between good 

 and what we may call " mineral " earth (which we use 



18 



