General 
This minute speck of living slime defies our analysis, 
for it is alive; it does things of itself, and it certainly 
does them on purpose. 
This point is far too frequently left out of sight in the 
botany of to-day. 
We forget that we are dealing with we know not 
what; that all protoplasm is a living mystery of whose 
origin we are utterly ignorant, except that, so far as we 
know, it never forms, except as a descendant of other 
living material. 
Organic substances have long ago been produced in 
chemical laboratories, but even there they are not 
accidental self-formed products, for they are made by 
the selection and skill of an intelligent being who is 
himself a product of live protoplasm cells. 
In another chapter we shall have to notice some of 
those vague and curious speculations which deal with 
the soul life or sense life of vegetables, Does the live 
cell enjoy itself? Is it conscious of its desires and of 
its discomfort, say in cold weather or when introduced 
to some poisonous secretion ? 
But in this first chapter we are not to be entangled 
in such questions as these, nor shall we wander in those 
vague and devious speculations which have nevertheless 
a very distinct and definite interest. 
We do not realise the immensity of the task that lay 
before the first vegetable cell. Here was the earth, 
utterly and entirely mineral, without the slightest trace 
or touch of organic matter, neither “soil” in the 
gardener’s sense nor bacteria; the water was without 
micro-organisms, and the land was original rock, barren 
sand, or bare mud. 
The author once had the opportunity of seeing on 
a large scale the extraordinary difference between good 
and what we may call “mineral” earth (which we use 
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