THE GREEN PLANT. 



33 



melts it up into carbon and oxygen, keeps the carbon 

 to feed upon, and gives back the oxygen to the air 

 again. Thus he works from sunrise to sunset; his 

 hours are regulated by the sun instead of Congress and 

 Parliament. Tou never hear of an " eight-hour move- 

 ment " or a " strike " among these " colored " laborers. 

 As soon as the sun goes down, they go to bed like hon- 

 est workmen. During the night, while the chlorophyl- 

 workers are asleep, the PROTOcoccus-cells give out car- 

 bonic acid, and take in oxygen just like the torul^e- 

 cells. Hence, you see, to have growing plants in your 

 room is healthy in the daytime, but not at night. 

 Recent investigations would go to prove that the 

 breathing of plants is similar to that of animals, dur- 

 ing both day and night — that the breaking up of car- 

 bonic acid, using the carbon and giving off oxygen, is 

 digestion and not respiration. It has its seat in the 

 chlorophyl, and is active in the sunlight ; while the 

 respiration, the breathing in of oxygen and the breath- 

 ing out of carbonic acid, has its seat in the protein, 

 and is active at all times. 



You can, if you look long and carefully, see how the 

 protococcus or mould-cells grow, not like the yeast- 

 cells, by giving out little buds around the edge, though 

 they do Qnce in a while grow in this way, but mostly 

 always the cell begins, like a little carpenter, to make a 



