Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-03-18
AGRICULTURAL PAPERS,
A SERIES PREPARED ESPECIALLY FOR
TIE "REcoRD-UNIoN."
Presenting Instruction Contained in Leet-
ures from the Chair of Agricult-
ure, State University.
[TENTH PAPER. !

TENTH PAPER.
| After having given brief outline of the
substances which constitute plant in the
chemical sense, it will be advisable for us
to notice the structure of plants. The sub.
stances which we have already described
constitute the materials of growth from
which the plant is built we have now to
deal with the structural organs of the
plant. Vegetable and animal bodies are
made up of numerous parts or organs, all
Of which are necessary to the full develop.
ment of the individual. This organized OF
organic structure, being an assemblage OF
organs, is callsd an organism. Objects
having no vital organic structure, and
which are not products of organic life, as
water, mineral matter, etc., are termed in.
organic. The different notifications and
forms OF inorganic matter are brought about
by chemical action and affinity. An or
ganic body deprived OF life suffers decom.
position and decay (oxidization) at the
hands of the atmospheric oxygen, and is
thus converted into inorganic matter. The
| same transformation takes place during
combustion, which is only rapid oxidiza.
ton
THE ORGANIC STRUCTURE OF PLANTS
| Consists of root, stem, leaf, flower and
seed. The plant as an organized struct-
ure, having the vital principle" has the
power of assimilating and absorbing exter-
nal matter, thus building up and increasing
its own mass, and of reproducing its own
kind, thus rerpetuating the species. TIE
structure of plants is made up of two kinds
OF organs, primary and complex. The pri.
mary organs consist simply of vegetable
cells which cannot be divided or wounded
without destroying them, and by whose
growth and multiplication all vegetable
matter is made up The complex organs
of plant are divided into two classes, dis
tiDguished by their different functions, as
vegetative and reproductive organs. The
vegetative organs are the roots, stem and
leaves, whose Office it is to assimilate food,
and to build up and nourish the plant
The flower and fruit, which constitute the
essential to the life of the plant, hut
ak uSCSesaiy w, SHu TIC organs ny
which are carried on the perpetual.
ton of the species. By microscopic
examination it has been proven that all
organized matter originates in the form of
minute vesicles or cells. By multiplying
the form of and aggregatlng together these
cells all vegetable structure is formed.
The simplest cell consists Of globular
sack or cell, more or less filed with liquid
or solid matter, sometimes both being
present.
IN ORGANIC STRUCTURES,
Which are simply aggregations CT cells,
the forms of the individual cells are ex-
tremely various and modified by all of the
different conditions and forms OF growth.
In the lower orders of organic life
molds, fungi, etc-we find individuals
which consist throughout all the stages of
growth wholly of cells; and cases are
often found where one single cell makes up
the entire structure of the individual.
The vital vegetable cell consists of four
essential parts-ths membrane, liquids of
the cel nucleus and nucleolus. The
liquid contents of the cell consist of
the ''free water of vegetation and the
prOtoplasm or q formative layer" By the
application of chemical tests, the mem
brane has been found to consist of celu-
lose. and the protoplasm principally, if not
wholly. of albuminoids. Cells are often
found which consist only of nucleus and
protoplasm, while in the older stages OF
cell growth they often differ essentially
from the primitive cell but these infinite
forms are only notifications of the
primitive one, and for the purpose of COM
plying more fully with the needs of the
plant. In living and active cells the walls
are always distended by the liquids of the
cell. This liquid consists of solution of
gums, sugars, dextrine, inuline, organic acids
and other matter of minor importance, Ia
oily plants some of the cells are filed
with droplets of the essential oils,
and in others the interstices and channels
between the cells are filled with colored
and sometime milky juices. The character
of the contents of the cells is determined
by the circumstances OF development and
the functions to be performed. In
the pith cells of some plants and the
cells of most bark the contents con-
sist mainly of air. The interior cells of the
potato are filled with starch grains, and
just within the epidermis of the cereal
grains there is layer of cells filled with
aibuminoids.
THE GROWTH OF PLANTS
Being nothing more than continuous
development and multiplication of cells,
it is obvious that the Increase of the
plant is dependent on the constant and
rapid formation of new cells. The proto-
plasm of the cells is "yellowish, turbid,
semi-huid substance of mucilaginous con-
sistence," which lines the interior of the
cell membranes, is in connection with the
nucleus, and which contains a vast num-
Der of infinitely small granules. This,
from the facts of its being first formed
and being the substance from which other
parts are formed, has been called the
formative layer" In cell multiplication
there are two processes of formation.
The first is by division of the old cell
into two or more cells, and is hence
called "division." The second is known
as free cell formation" in which nuclei
appear in the protoplasm of the parent
cell, which gradually enlarge and develop
into complete individual cells. These in
due course of time, by resorption or by
the death of the old cell thrown out,
become free cells. The multiplication of
cells is in many vegetable growths almost
fabulously rapid. 1t has been estimated
that in the mushroom family the produc-
ton of cells often takes place at the rate
of three or four hundred million per hour
Although the highest power of the micro
scope fails to find any apertures in the
cell membrane, yet it is readily permea-
BILE to liquids. 1t is this property of the
membrane which allows the absorption
and emission of liquids of the cells to
take place SO readily.
IN THE HIGHER ORDER
q u. l.. 1 4 ~ offa,, fhak The