The Rugbeian. (Rugby, Morgan Co., Tenn.) 1881-1882, 1881-11-12
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speak of plants in the world of the micr
scope, l speak of nothing at all like any
plant he sees in the world around him.
When the microscopic would question
concerning these twin mysteries, Life an
Death, he goes to water If now we wal
along Clear Fork, we see that the wat,'
bears up meadows of vegetation. This
vegetation is, for the most part, cryptic
grams, that is, fowerless plants. A few
bear faint resemblance to higher veg.
tation, but the many are thread-Gk. ).
streaming about in the water like grc,l
silk. White Oak is comparatively fr,,
from this cryptogamia, for the waters ii
White Oak bear down much more in.
organic matter, and the inorganic destro~l
the organic matter. The particles of san
and clay cling to the waving masses of
vegetation and weigh them down, t.
length burying them out of sight as W,
bury our dead. Hence, as country b.,
comes cleared up the streams become fr,.
from the cryptogamia But let us take
tiny piece of vegetation with the watp
that surrounds it, and place it under til,
microscope. Now the tiny threads OF
green look like great boles of trees, an |
interminsled with them are other and fir
smaller plants of divers and beautiful
forms. These are each but single Gel.
but that cell is thing of beauty. Thes,
are the Desmids. Among those still
forms are others of far greater variety
and much smaller, that glide about lib,
canoes, these are the Diatomes. We hay.
come now down to that world where tLy
vesussoIe is1a Tree moving orgaillsaas1
the animal is simple sack filled with
fluid, wherein the faintest trace OF
organization is scarcely discernable. Feed
ing on these meadows of unicellular
plants is a host of animals. First come
the Rotifers, beings Of high organization
and interesting forms, and tiny crusta-
ceans; then come ugly worms; then the
host of the Infusoria of widely different
forms, but all built on the same plan,
bag filled with fluid and the objects
devoured as food, that swims, walks, runs,
or feeds by means of motile ella, or hairs.
Among these, but far down in size, flashing
here and there like mere atoms, are the
monads, ranked as the smallest of animals,
and by some regarded as plants, or motilc
spores of plants rather. Now the germs
of these infusoria are borne about by the
atmosphere wherever the atmosphere may
go. TO prove this all we have to do is to
take vessel, fill it with water, place in it
a bit of hay, leaves, or any matter that
will decompose, and in few days the
water will swarm with all this host of
lufusoria. But nothing that we have seen
yet proves that the water is foul or putrid,
inasmuch as all these organisms are
found in common streams and pools; the
fewer they are in numbers, the better the
water, however. These Infusoria, Cryptic
gamia, etc, were all that the microscope
revealed till very late years. Carpenter,
in the 4th edition of his work, made in
1868, speaks of nothing lower in the
scale of being. Let us shift the scene.
take now a glass of water and place
therein bit of beef or any fresh meat,
then set it on the window sill. The water
soon becomes what we call putrid. We
know this change by bad smell. AT the
same time it becomes cloudy, it is no
longer clear. | now take bit of the water
and put it under the microscope, using
the glass with which viewed the cryptic
gamia and infusoria, see nothing-yes
| look very sharp and think see some
, thing moving. put Oh stronger glass
} one that will reveal about all that has vel
, 1 LOO, eo.n Nm. I eoo An ,.,oe< &c f,.,,,,