The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1879-02-13
HOW DID LIFE BEGIN :

swer this interesting question. We find
Two forms Of life, vegetable and animal.
Beyond all question, vegetable life was
created an unknown period of time be-
fore the animal Animals depend for
life and health on vegetables $ let US
inquire how vegetable life began. In
what form did life appear in them: But
all plants, all vegetables, are divided
into groups-those that have flowers,
and those that do not. The simplest
vegetables are those that are fOwerless.
The great purpose Of flowers is to gener-
ate fluid, the fovilIa, that may pene-
trate the oyaries, or seed vessels and
Gitalize the ovules The fowerless
plants have simpler way Of production
and propagation, by cells. As we wish
to know where life begins, we must ex-
anime this earliest and simplest class of
the vegetable world, a class composed
Of cells. To a glass Of molasses and
water add teaspoonful of yeast. Set
it in warm place. In few hours fer
mentation will begin. Vesicles. or cells,
will be rapidly developed. These are
cells resembling the cells Of plants, so
far as the naked eye can see. The ele-
mentary structure Of all vegetable tissue
Is this cell Examine the bud of
growing stem, and we find it composed
q cells. Each cell consists of an outer
wall. Within it is a soft mass of proto-
plasm, a heterogeneous material contain
ing the element of life in the simplest
plant or animal one simple cell forms
the individual and the means of growth,
health and reproduction. These cells
multiply IN various ways. The means
Of growth within the cell Of animals and
plants is protoplasm-a plastic sub
stance containing the clements Of vital
ity. Other elements may be found with
IN the cell-walls, but none is so abso-
lutely essential to life and growth as this
self-same protoIlasm. 1t is the starting
point Of lite. II It are contained all
the clements needed 10 form celI-wals
and ceIl-sap.
n some living plants one cell alone
performs all the functions necessary for
Its existence The cell, then, is an ex-
ample of vegetable life. In this way the
lowest forms Of vegetable life began
These died, and supplied means of
growth to their successors.
We see now an expression of this life
on all the objects that cncircle US, upon
the hardest rocks, upon the bark of trees
and upon all materials dead or living.
Not a drop of water long exposed to air,
not the small bits OF vegetable tissue,
not the smallest particle of matter, but
supplies food to its peculiar people The
surface of the earth is nearly covered
with microscopic plants that are wonder
fully fitted to their native place. The
hottest springs and the coldest SHOWS
have each their peculiar plants. We
fndl life everywhere. In the valleys and
on the hills, on the walls and on the
trees, We find an unlimited amount of
vegetable life We may observe it, If
we will, in tiny tufts and gray stains.
easily dried By the suns rays and easily
revived by the genial rains And so on
stagnant, and even OF moving, waters
we observe green scum that the mi
croscope reveals as full of life Exam
inc fallen and decaying leaves, and you
may see minute gelatinous bodies of
various forms AM sizes. These all and
many more belong to the primal life
They increase and multiply not by seeds,
properly 50 called, but BY minute embryo
plants, or spores, or minute cells. These
cells multiply and give rise to other
forms that have received distinctive
names, as lickens that one NAV see in
green patches on stones, and other OBJ
iects having no leaves, nor stems, as
moses that one may find on rocks and
barks, having stems and leaves. This
form of early life, the cellular, abounds
in every section of the earth. How long
these eell-plants represented the only
idea Of life on earth. we do not know.
Humble as are these primal outsets Of
life at the present time, in the carbon
ferrous era, ferns, moses and other cell
luIar plants were distinguished for their
countless numbers, their massive forms
and their rank luxuriance, covering the
whole earth with mantle of the dark
est green. They formed forests that
were reduced TO carbonaceous, or BIZ
luminous, condition, and by the many
commissions of our earth are now deeply
buried in its bowels. They, now in the
form Of coal, contribute largely to our
comfort and cur health
This class Of plants, the earliest liv-
ing things, are called cryptogamic, be-
cause they do not flower or propagate as
others do. They have spread and null
tipHed, and cover now the surface, where
no other plants can grow. Immense
areas of the surface of the earth, unoc-
cupied by other plants, are covered now,
and have been for myraids of years. with