A simple plant does what animals more highly endowed cannot do. From
simplest substances they manufacture the most complex. We owe our
existence to plants, as they do theirs to the air and soil.
The elements carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen pass through a
cycle of changes from simple inorganic substances to the complex
compounds of the living cell. Upon the decomposition of these bodies
the elements return to their original state. During this transition
those properties of protoplasm which were mentioned at the beginning,
in turn, follow their path. From germination to death this course
appears like a crescent, the other half of the circle closed from
view. Where chemistry begins and ends it is difficult to say.--_Jour.
Fr. Inst._
[Footnote 1: A lecture delivered before the Franklin Institute,
January 24, 1887.]
[Footnote 2: Studien uber das Protoplasm, 1881.]
[Footnote 3: Vines, p. 1. Rostafinski: Mem. de la Soc. des Sc.
Nat. de Cherbourg, 1875. Strasburger: Zeitschr., xii, 1878.]
[Footnote 4: Botany: Prantl and Vines. London, 1886, p. 110.]
[Footnote 5: For the literature of starch, see p. 115, Die
Pflanzenstoffe, von Hilger and Husemann.]
[Footnote 6: Kutzing: Arch. Pharm., xli, 38.
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