62 THE STO&Y OF THE PLANTS. 



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and this Qrotoplasnjjs the v ultimate living matter, 

 the " physicaT basis of lii'e ; the 



which there could be_ no plants 

 possible. 



What is protoplasm this mysterious stuff, 

 whferl builds up the bodies of plants and animals ? 

 ^It is a curious transparent jelly-like substance, 

 full of tiny microscopic grains, and composed of 



Sometimes it is almost watery, sometimes half- 

 horny, but as a rule it is waxy or soft in texture. 

 It is very plastic. Its peculiar characteristic is 

 that it is restlessly alive, so to speak ; seen under 

 a microscope, it moves about uneasily, with a 

 strange streaming motion, as if in search of 

 something it wanted. It is, in point of fact, the 

 building-material of life ; and out of it the living 

 parts of every creature that lives, whetner animal 

 or vegetable, are framed and compounded. 



/ But it is plants alone that know how to make 

 protoplasm. Animals can only take it ready- 



JL> made, -from planta. and burn it up again 6y 

 feumonwitri oxygen in their own bodies. The 

 jplant manufactures it. The animal destroys it. 

 Chlorophyll or the active green-stuff of leaves is 

 a special modification or ^ariety of protoplasm ; 

 and chlorophyll \alon o/ possesses the power to 

 manufacture 



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material, under the influence of sunlight, from 

 the .dead and inert bodies around it. The 

 materials which it thus produces are afterwards 



worked up by the plant, together with the 

 nitrogen, sulphur, and phosphorus supplied by 

 the roots, into fresh protoplasm and fresh 



