THE MICROSCOPE AND PLANT LIFE 



stout wire coiled round it as a protection; these 

 tubes may clearly be compared with the familiar 

 hose-pipe, where the rubber portion represents the 

 cell wall and the stout wire the thickened parts of 

 the wall. There is, however, this great difference, 

 the wire is outside the hose-pipe, the thickened 

 portion of the plant tube is inside the wall. These 

 tubes are the ducts for water passing from root to 

 leaf. 



If the agricultural side of botany attracts us we 

 shall not have much difficulty in finding many more 

 objects from the fungus world than are men- 

 tioned in our chapter on Agriculture, whilst the 

 study of bacteria may truthfully be termed never 

 ending. Ponds and rivers teem with vegetation suit- 

 able for microscopic study. The testing of foods for 

 impurities is largely botanical work. The botanist, 

 of all men, need never allow his microscope to be 

 idle. 



Our British insectivorous plants are of great 

 interest and they will supply us with some objects 

 for our microscope. We only possess three different 

 kinds of these curious plants in this country, the 

 Bladderworts which live in water and the Sundews 

 and Butterwort, which frequent moist, peaty land. 



The pond-dwelling Bladderworts are not rare, 

 indeed they occur in plenty in certain localities, 

 but they are not very evenly distributed over the 

 country and in some districts one may search for 

 them in vain. It is worth while making a special 

 effort to obtain a specimen. Each plant bears a 



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