178 Elementary Zoology. 



fluid, which can convert proteids into the diifusible peptones, 

 and they do not thrive so well without as with animal food. 

 The sundew of this country is an example of an insectivorous 

 plant. The fungi are plants which do not contain chlorophyll. 

 Beside fungi, there are more highly organized plants, such as 

 the parasitic dodder, which are also without chlorophyll. These 

 plants prey upon other plants, or upon decaying animal or 

 vegetable substances; the moulds, which cover dying wood, 

 manure heaps, and other masses of organized matter, are 

 examples. These plants feed so far like animals in that they 

 absorb organized compounds which, as an animal, they break 

 down chemically within their protoplasm, and then reconstruct 

 into the protoplasm of iheir bodies. These fungi, however, do 

 not always live in this animal fashion. Plants without chloro- 

 phyll can live in fluids containing the elements of which their 

 protoplasm is built up combined into salts, but the salts must 

 be, some of them, organic compounds. Such a solution as 

 Pasteur's solution is fit for the growth of fungi. Its com- 

 position is as follows :— 



Water, H^O. 



Cane sugar, djHj^On. 



Ainmonium tartrate, (NH4)2C4HjO|i. 



Potassium phosphate, KjPO^. 



Calcium phosphate, Ca3(PO,)2. 



Magnesium sulphate, MgSO^. 



An animal such as an amoeba cannot live in this fluid. As to 

 the exact way in which the food stuffs are taken into the body, 

 the plant differs from the animal. The amoeba ingests solid 

 particles; it gets outside its food. This mode of nutrition 

 extends to the highest animals. In the intestine of man, for 

 example, fat particles are eaten up by cells of the intestine, 

 the amoeboid independence of the individual cells being thus 

 retained. This has been shown to be the case with many 

 animals. In a hydra many particles of food are devoured by 

 separate cells, and then, after digestion, passed on and used 

 for the common good. Plants do not absorb their food in 

 this fashion. It is taken in as fluid (we are speaking, of course, 

 of the animal-like plants), not devoured separately as solid 

 particles. This difference between animals and plants might, 



