2 MINUTE MARVELS OF NATURE 



coloured sea-water, and no matter how closely 

 you look, it still seems only coloured water. 

 But the colour is due to incalculable multitudes 

 of tiny plants, living their separate sea-lives as 

 completely as the great whale himself. In the 

 same way a coloured stain will creep over 

 damp walls, the bark of trees, or this old fence 

 of mine, where myriads of microscopic plants 

 are congregating together and multiplying very 

 rapidly. 



For the infinite variety of form and habit that 

 plant life assumes adapts it to flourish in sites 

 where life of any kind might have seemed im- 

 possible. Leathery and powdery plant-incrusta- 

 tions cling to the hardest rocks and stoniest soils ; 

 vegetable moulds take up their abode on almost 

 every perishable article ; trees and ships are often 

 completely destroyed by a plant multitude known 

 as "dry-rot"; while smut, rust, bunt, and other 

 familiar forms of parasitic fungi, prey upon living 

 plants to such an extent as to spoil and destroy 

 whole crops of grain or fruit. What seems worse 

 still is that many of them not infrequently invade 

 the organs of living animals, and are the known 

 causes of many diseases. A single drop of pond, 

 river, or sea water will often reveal multitudes of 

 varied plant forms ; and, in short, it is difficult to 

 point to any natural condition of land or water 



