September 1, 1894. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
9 3 
World-Renowned, Gold Medal 
BULBS 
FOR EXHIBITION 
As shown at the Royal Horticultural Society's 
and Royal Botanic Society's Shows. 
HYACINTHS FOR BEDS AND 
BORDERS. 
TULIPS FOR POTS AND BEDS. 
DAFFODILS AND NARCIS8U3. 
ANEMONES, CROCUS AND 
RANUNCULU8. 
GLADIOLI, EARLY-FLOWERING 
VARIETIES. 
LILIUM CANDIDUM. 
LILIUM HARRISII. 
CHEAP BULBS 
Suitable for Planting in Borders, 
Masses, Shrubberies, &c. 
For Particulars see Illustrated Catalogue, forwarded 
Gratis and Post Free to all applicants. 
B. S. WILLIAMS & SOB, 
Victoria & Paradise Nurseries, 
UPPER HOLLOWAY, LONDON, N. 
ORCHIDS. 
Clean Healthy Plants at Low Prices. 
Always worth a visit of inspection. Kindly send for Catalogue. 
jamesTypher, 
Exotic Nurseries, CHELTENHAM. 
GRAND NEW ZONALS, 1894. 
Selected from Pearson’s, Cannell’s, Miller’s, and my 
own sets. 
Cuttings .. .. .. .. 6s. per doz. 
New Zonals, 1893. Cuttings.. .. 3s. ,, 
Very fine previous introduction .. 2s. ,, 
Free, Cash with Order. 
H. J. J ONES, 
Ryecroft Nursery, Hither Green, Lewisham. 
The Late MR. DODWELL’S 
GRAND CARNATIONS. 
THE FINEST GROWN. 
All Classes, 10/6 per dozen. 
List ot Specialties can be obtained of— 
Mr. A. MEDHURST, 
Thf. Cottage, Stanley Road, Oxford. 
Pansies & Violas 
FANCY PANSIES. 
I offer 1 pair cuttiDgs of Miss Stirling and B. Doulton, the best 
var. in cultivation, these have been awarded five special 
prizes for the best new Pansies, and were the leading flowers 
in seven medal stands this season, including Edinburgh 
Glasgow and London, and 11 pairs of the best 1894 var. for 7s. 6d. 
My 3s. collection of 13 pairs includes one variety of Mr. C. 
Kay's new Pansies and 3 pairs for 1894. 
SHOW PANSIES. 
One pair cuttings of a new variety and 12 pairs of the best 
1894 for 61 - 
Four pairs of 1894 var. and 9 grand competition sorts for 3/- 
YIOLAS 
(.Awarded 4 Medals this season). 
I have 100,000 cuttings now ready for delivery. The follow¬ 
ing are the very best 20 new and old varieties for bedding 
and massing, and include the e'eam of the unrivalled rayless 
Violas. Seven are new 1894 var. and three are 1893 var. Mrs. 
C. F. Gordon, Cecilia, Beautiful Snow, Admiration, Goldfinch, 
Charmer, Commodore, M. Todd, Accushla, Lord Elcho, 
Wm. Niel, Duchess of Fife. Rayless type: Grandee, Border 
Witch, Christiana. Tinted: Queen of the May, Sylvia, Blue 
Gown, Blush Queen. I will substitute other varieties in place 
of any of the above not wanted. One pair cuttings of each var. 
for 4/-; 5 each for 7/6; 10 each for 13/6; 20 each for 25/- 
Catalogues Free to any Address. 
S. PYE, 
CATTERALL, GARSTANG, LANC. 
For Index to Contents see page 13. 
“ Gardening is the purest of human pleasures, and the greatest 
refreshment to the spirit of man.”— Bacon. 
NEXT WEEK'S ENGAGEMENTS. 
Monday, Sept. 3rd.—Bulb Sale at Protheroe & Morris' Rooms, 
and every day in the week. 
Tuesday, Sept. 4th.—Flower Show at the Westminster 
Aquarium (3 days) 
Meeting of the Floral Committee of the N.C.S. at 1 o’clock, 
Friday, Sept. 7th.—National Dahlia Show at the Crystaj 
Palace (2 days). 
Orchid Sale at Protheroe & Morris’ Rooms. 
^atjtl^jiij ifUflti, 
Edited by BRIAN WYNNE, F.R.H.S. 
SATURDAY , SEPTEMBER i st, 1894. 
77 T iiat is a Plant.— This may seem an 
easy question to answer, but the 
more it is studied the more difficult it 
becomes to give an explanation that may 
not be confuted by some other discovery. 
The two kingdoms, the animal and the 
vegetable, approach each other very closely 
amongst the lower organisms belonging to 
each, and it would not be a wide stretch of 
the imagination to conceive that both had 
a common origin ; in fact, it seems very 
feasible after a close study of the organisms, 
both plant and animal, endowed with life, and 
even with the power of movement. In the 
case of the higher organisms belonging to 
both kingdoms, there is no difficulty what¬ 
ever in coming to a decision as to which 
great division each should belong. As a 
type of one of the lower forms of vegetable 
life, the green scum that forms in water- 
butts, shallow pools and other reservoirs 
supplied by rain water, may be taken. 
This is the Protococcus pluvialis of the 
botanist, and consists, when mature, of a 
single cell or sac filled with protoplasm, 
with leaf-green or chlorophyll diffused 
through it, and sometimes possessing what 
appears a nucleus. The cell wall consists 
of cellulose, but this may be entirely absent 
during the motile stage of the organism 
when it is, for the time being, an animal for 
all practical purposes. But the fact that it 
becomes enclosed in a cell wall of cellulose 
at one stage of its life history, and can 
manufacture its own food out of such 
a compound as ammonium tartrate, 
and, in fact, out of the simple inorganic 
elements constitutes it a plant. The power 
to construct protein out of ammonium tar¬ 
trate is decidedly a vegetable peculiarity. 
What then is an animal ? The Proteus 
Animalcule or Amoeba may be taken as 
the lowest form of animal life. It consists 
of a microscopical mass of jelly-like 
matter, clear on the outer surface, granu¬ 
lar and more opaque inside of this and 
passing into a more liquid matter in the 
centre. It sometimes, but not always, 
possesses a nucleus and a clear spot 
known as the contractile vesicle. The 
outline of this jelly-like mass is con¬ 
tinually undergoing changes of outline ; 
small, rounded portions are pushed out 
and the remainder then brought up to 
them, and in this way the primitive and 
minute animal moves along. It is an 
animal, not because of its power of con¬ 
tractility and movement, but because it 
r.ever becomes enclosed in a cell wall of 
cellulose, and because unable to manufac¬ 
ture protein out of comparatively simple 
chemical substances. 
Professor Macfarlane has been lecturing 
upon this subject at the Marine Biological 
Laboratory of Wood’s Hall, Massa¬ 
chusetts, and speaks of the protoplasm 
or jelly-like matter in the cells of the 
higher plants as the true contractile tissue 
and not the cell walls. That is, indeed, 
no new idea to us, for, in fact, it has long 
been known that one of the properties of 
protoplasm is contractility. The cell wall 
in the young and growing stage is capable 
of being stretched or extended by the 
pressure of the contents within, but it is 
capable of great reduction in size when the 
pressure is removed. Professor Macfar¬ 
lane says that contractility may be stimu¬ 
lated by light and heat, by chemical, me¬ 
chanical and electrical agencies. On this 
side of the Atlantic, those facts are now 
comparatively old. Nor do we see that it 
breaks down any more of the old land¬ 
marks between plants and animals. If 
protoplasm were unable to respond to stimu¬ 
lation from external agencies, we should 
have no such phenomena as are exhibited 
by sensitive plants, by Venus Fly-trap, by 
climbing plants, by leaves and parts of 
flowers generally which respond to stimuli 
and show it by movements more or less 
rapid. The movements are merely an ex¬ 
pression of the fact that a change has taken 
place in the chemical composition or com¬ 
plexity of the protoplasm, so that it con¬ 
tracts and water is allowed to pass out of 
the cell. 
Is the plant or animal kingdom the 
oldest ? Well, the simple fact that 
animals cannot manufacture their own 
carbonaceous food from the carbon 
dioxide of the atmosphere, and from water, 
should be conclusive evidence that plants 
containing a green colouring matter should 
have previously existed so as to supply the 
animals with an already manufactured food. 
It may be said that some plants do not 
possess chlorophyll. In such cases they 
absorb food that has already been at one 
time built up in some other plant or animal. 
The yeast plant is an example of this. 
The Amoeba has, in the long run, to 
obtain its food ready-made by some 
or other form of vegetable life, and, 
in that respect, it is like the higher 
animals. 
