4 
_ for its intellectual attainments, although its members woul” 
722 Comparative Chemustry of Higher and Lower Plants.. f 
compounds to the development of certain plants.” It maybe 
inferred that “plant chemistry and morphology are ‘elated 
Future investigation will demonstrate this relation.” te 
The theory of evolution, which underlies all mineral ani 
organic forms, comprises the evolution of the component parts 
of the whole, and, since the structural bases of minerals ani 
plants are chemical compounds, their evolution must necessarily 
be included in a study of plant-life. Whether this life reveal 
itself in the perfume of sweet flowers, or in the manifold forms 
of vegetation, from the simple mass of plant-jelly to the majestic 
forest-tree, its dependence upon matter invokes the most eagt 
desire to acquaint ourselves with its various manifestations. 7 
When matter, through chemical change, exhibits propertie 
of absorption, metabolism, excretion, reproduction, contractility, 
automatism, and irritability, it is said to be living. In this cot 
dition it is called protoplasm. This substance is very complet 
and of undetermined composition, though its proximate const 
tution is known? It is always present where life, as defined, 
found, apparently the same in the lower as in the higher plants. 
The lowest forms of plants, plasmodia, are irregular-shap% 
masses of jelly, undifferentiated in form, function, and chemi 
composition. This living jelly is described “as a coto 
albuminoid united with more or less water.”? , 
tion, and lying in contact with a firm elastic membrane CaF 
the cell-wall ; also, like it, closed on all sides, and consisting 
cellulose, water, and inorganic matter. Some of the Alg® 
all higher plants are congregations of these cells grou 
tissues and organs, and their albuminoid contents are 
going continual change; in life it is a building-up process 
food being supplied from the gases, water, and inorgamle 
stances of the surroundings, and elaborated in the plant's ° 
laboratory to meet its needs, Mee 
The vegetable kingdom does not usually claim our 4 
z Reinke and Rodewald, Berlin, 1881; Physiological Botany, by Gut 
-1885, p. 197. 
+ 
