np^^ 



THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE, 



21 







P^ss 





Al 



in 1837, M. Boussingault, after contrasting the meteor- 

 ological circumstances in which wheat^ barley, Indian 

 corn, and the potato are developed at the equator and 

 in the temperate zones, with their different rates of 

 I growth in these situations, came to the conclusion *^that 

 the same annual plant everywhere receives the same 

 quantity of heat in the course of its existence/ And 

 in one of his more recent works, speaking of the Fora- 

 minifera, Dr, Carpenter says^, ^ We have found strong 



of the time I reason for regarding temperature as exerting a most im- 

 ^11 that has! portant influence in favouring, not merely increase in 



organism is E: ^^^^j ^^^ specialization of development: all the most 



complicated and specialized forms at present known 



of animals we being denizens either of tropical or sub-tropical seas, and 



i^g the 



:ored to it 

 ^ believe 

 s received 



I 



back by it 



itionship betf 

 , and the ai 

 al sources. 



many of these being represented in the seas of colder 

 regions by comparatively insignificant examples which 

 there seems adequate reason for regarding as of the 

 same specific types with the tropical forms, even though 

 deficient in some of their apparently most important 



next to note, ass features/ That the rate of growth in plants depends 



most notably upon the amount of light and heat to 

 which they are subjected is a fact familiar to most of 



\ 



-tween 



those or?' 



ternal forces 

 )lved from ^^• 



and' 



i 



hereas pl^^^^' ^'^* ^\i^ stimulation of the vital processes by heat is, 



en, are depen*'' indeed, most easy of demonstration in some cases. It 



.,1 ^^ 



>, t^^ ..M is now perfectly well known that in Valisnerta^ Chara^ 



Anackarh^ and other plants in the cells of which there 

 is a well-marked cyclosls^ the rate of revolution of the 



nitrogeno"^^ 

 ,tinction,ho. 



plants there 

 • uv that tne) 



1 ( 



Introduction to the Study of the Foraminifera' (Ray Soc ), 1862, 



p. 9 



