The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1902-03-25
Minute Marvels.

Nothing could appear more thoroughly
and completely dead than a paling which
is beginning to decay. but IL you VIII
come with me 10 the fence i Will show
you more living plants than you could OBJ
tain In a bird's-eye view OF the whole OF
Kew gardens. Many of us think OF
''plants" only as the towering plants
which are put in our gardens and would
flower bed contained more weeds tnan
plants" while very few would enumsrate
more than trees. shrubs. herbs, grasses,
ferns and moses as classes OF plant. Yet
only a very small proportion or the
worlds plant life. so far as numbers go,
assume these prominent forms.
The sea. for instance, is sometimes con-
spicuously tinged in large patches. upon
which inexperienced passengers gaze IN
wonder from the steamer deek; ,pby
colored sea water, and no matter how
closely you look II still seems only coll
ored water. But the color Is due 20 in
| calculable mutitudes of tiny plants living
their separate sea lives as completely as
| the great whale himself
In the same way a colored stain viii
creep over damp walls, the bark OF trees,
| OF this old fence OF mine. where myriads
of microscopic plants are congregating
| together and multiplying very rapidly.
| crusted all the lower part. as far as the
| damp earth's influence reaches. giving Ii
| a bright color that you can see across
/
finger nail and the green stuff that comes
| off consists OF many hundreds OF the
| simplest of known plants. These are the
| one-celled algae, known to botanists as
| protococcus viridis. greatly magnifed
| photograph OF the actual object shows
the green stun of my finger nail. under n
| medium magnifying power. as a con-
| glomeration of granules, each granule n
| plant. IL we examine one OF these green
granules under very high magnifying
| powers we find that IL possesses consid-
| erable structural detail. simple. perhaps.
| compared with the structure of the higher
| plants, but then II must be remembered
that these tiny living plantations occupy
about the one-thousandth or an inch OF
space.
The envelope or cell-wali which sur.
rounds shows clearly a double outline
and contains the life-matter known as
protoplasm. Embedded in this can be de-
| tected the living centre OF each cell ol
plant, which botanists term the nucleus
Each of these minute atoms OF plant life
| quickly attains TO Independent maturity
and divides, by means OF n partition wal
which forms like film OF ice. and cut,
completely separated, very soon divides
| again, and so myriads OF plants arr
| quickly formed. which cover large area,
in short spaces Of time.
| In the Artic region early explorers wer,
astounded to find large areas OF red snow
| but the phenomenon Is now familiar q
| men of science. who know that red snow
| like "a green garden fence. Is due to th'
presence OF unicellular algae, the onl'
| difference being In the coloring matter o
| the protoplasm n IL said that acres o
| snow are frequently covered I'm a singh
| night by these tiny plants.
Many vegetable cells are so small tha
over one hundred millions would barrel
occupy cubic inch of space, and In eacI
OF these the work OF life goss on.-Johi
J.. Ward. In Good Words.