118 Evolution of Vegetal Life. 



frequently attained under conditions which are artificial,, 

 and which are dependent upon the continued care and at- 

 tention of the operator. From this it would naturally be 

 inferred that the elaborate productions of the culturist's art, 

 if left to themselves, would either perish from the too cold 

 charities of the common world, or would rapidly change 

 their character, and if they did not return toward the form 

 from which they were derived, would at least become some- 

 thing quite different from that to which they had been 

 trained, — and this is frequently, if not always, found to be 

 the case. I have been particularly interested in noticing 

 the apple-trees growing among the trees of the forest, by 

 the side of country roads : not merely the fruit is different 

 from what it should have been, but the whole character of 

 the tree is changed. The branches, instead of being few 

 and wide-reaching, have become numerous, ascending, fre- 

 quently divided, angular, and with twigs short and thorny. 



Strictly speaking, an organism is that which has organs. 

 Colloquially, however, when we speak of organic life, we 

 use the term in contradistinction from mineral, which we 

 call inorganic. As we have seen, the lowest form of mat- 

 ter of which we speak as living, is composed of carbon, 

 oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen, which are also found in 

 compounds not termed organic. What, then, is the distinc- 

 tion between the organic and the inorganic, and how and 

 when did this distinction arise ? 



Huxley gives three points, in which he claims that that 

 which has life differs from that which has not life. First : 

 In its chemical composition; the chemical elements are 

 united in a combination called proteine, which, together 

 with a large proportion of water, forms protoplasm. Pro- 

 teine, it is said, has never yet been found except as a prod- 

 uct of living bodies. Second : Its universal disintegration 

 and waste by oxidation, and its reintegration by the recep- 

 tion of new matter. Third : Its tendency to undergo cyc- 

 lical changes — that is, to pass through a course of devel- 

 opment and decay in a succession of forms, like and unlike. 



Probably at the outset many persons would say that mo- 

 tion and growth are the most characteristic attributes of life. 

 But the mineral compounds show both motion and growth. 

 Certainly few things are more definite or beautiful than the 

 growth, of course accompanied by motion, which occurs in 



