Elements of Structural and Systematic Botany - Douglas Houghton Campbell

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      Fig. 4.—A, cross section. B, longitudinal section of the leaf stalk of wild geranium, showing its cellular structure. Ep. epidermis. h, a hair, × 50. C, a cell from the prothallium (young plant) of a fern, × 150. The contents of the cell contracted by the action of a solution of sugar.

      On placing a cell into a fluid denser than the cell sap (e.g. a ten-per-cent solution of sugar in water), a portion of the water will be extracted from the cell, and we shall then see the protoplasm receding from the wall (Fig. 4, C), showing that it is normally in a state of tension due to pressure from within of the cell sap. The cell wall shows the same thing though in a less degree, owing to its being much more rigid than the protoplasmic lining. It is owing to the partial collapsing of the cells, consequent on loss of water, that plants wither when the supply of water is cut off.

      As cells grow, new ones are formed in various ways. If the new cells remain together, cell aggregates, called tissues, are produced, and of these tissues are built up the various organs of the higher plants. The simplest tissues are rows of cells, such as form the hairs covering the surface of the organs of many flowering plants (Fig. 3), and are due to a division of the cells in a single direction. If the divisions take place in three planes, masses of cells, such as make up the stems, etc., of the higher plants, result (Fig. 4, A, B).

       CLASSIFICATION OF PLANTS.—PROTOPHYTES.

       Table of Contents

      For the sake of convenience it is desirable to collect into groups such plants as are evidently related; but as our knowledge of many forms is still very imperfect, any classification we may adopt must be to a great extent only provisional, and subject to change at any time, as new forms are discovered or others become better understood.

      The following general divisions are usually accepted: I. Sub-kingdom (or Branch); II. Class; III. Order; IV. Family; V. Genus; VI. Species.

      To illustrate: The white pine belongs to the highest great division (sub-kingdom) of the plant kingdom. The plants of this division all produce seeds, and hence are called “spermaphytes” (“seed plants”). They may be divided into two groups (classes), distinguished by certain peculiarities in the flowers and seeds. These are named respectively “gymnosperms” and “angiosperms,” and to the first our plant belongs. The gymnosperms may be further divided into several subordinate groups (orders), one of which, the conifers, or cone-bearing evergreens, includes our plant. This order includes several families, among them the fir family (Abietineæ), including the pines and firs. Of the sub-divisions (genera, sing. genus) of the fir family, one of the most familiar is the genus Pinus, which embraces all the true pines. Comparing different kinds of pines, we find that they differ in the form of the cones, arrangement of the leaves, and other minor particulars. The form we have selected differs from all other native forms in its cones, and also in having the leaves in fives, instead of twos or threes, as in most other kinds. Therefore to distinguish the white pine from all other pines, it is given a “specific” name, strobus.

      The following table will show more plainly what is meant:

      Sub-kingdom,

       Spermaphyta. Includes all spermaphytes, or seed plants. Class, Gymnospermæ. All naked-seeded plants. Order, Coniferæ. All cone-bearing evergreens. Family, Abietineæ. Firs, Pines, etc. Genus, Pinus. Pines. Species, Strobus. White Pine.

       Protophytes.

       Table of Contents

      The name Protophytes (Protophyta) has been applied to a large number of simple plants, which differ a good deal among themselves. Some of them differ strikingly from the higher plants, and resemble so remarkably certain low forms of animal life as to be quite indistinguishable from them, at least in certain stages. Indeed, there are certain forms that are quite as much animal as vegetable in their attributes, and must be regarded as connecting the two kingdoms. Such forms are the slime moulds (Fig. 5), Euglena (Fig. 9), Volvox (Fig. 10), and others.

      Fig. 5.—A, a portion of a slime mould growing on a bit of rotten wood, × 3. B, outline of a part of the same, × 25. C, a small portion showing the densely granular character of the protoplasm, × 150. D, a group of spore cases of a slime mould (Trichia), of about the natural size. E, two spore cases, × 5. The one at the right has begun to open. F, a thread (capillitium) and spores of Trichia, × 50. G, spores. H, end of the thread, × 300. I, zoöspores of Trichia, × 300. i, ciliated form; ii, amœboid forms. n, nucleus. v, contractile vacuole. J, K, sporangia of two common slime moulds. J, Stemonitis, × 2. K, Arcyria, × 4.

      Other protophytes, while evidently enough of vegetable nature, are nevertheless very different in some respects from the higher plants.

      The protophytes may be divided into three classes: I. The slime moulds (Myxomycetes); II. The Schizophytes; III. The green monads (Volvocineæ).

      Class I.—The Slime Moulds.

      These curious organisms are among the most puzzling forms with which the botanist has to do, as they are so much like some of the lowest forms of animal life as to be scarcely distinguishable from them, and indeed they are sometimes regarded as animals rather than plants. At certain stages they consist of naked masses of protoplasm of very considerable size, not infrequently several centimetres in diameter. These are met with on decaying logs in damp woods, on rotting leaves, and other decaying vegetable matter. The commonest ones are bright yellow or whitish, and form soft, slimy coverings over the substratum (Fig. 5, A), penetrating into its crevices and showing sensitiveness toward light. The plasmodium, as the mass of protoplasm is called, may be made to creep upon a slide in the following way: A tumbler is filled with water and placed in a saucer filled with sand. A strip of blotting paper about the width of the slide is now placed with one end in the water, the other hanging over the edge of the glass and against one side of a slide, which is thus held upright, but must not be allowed to touch the side of the tumbler. The strip of blotting paper sucks up the water, which flows slowly down the surface of the slide in contact with the blotting paper. If now a bit of the substance upon which the plasmodium is growing is placed against the bottom of the slide on the side where the stream of water is, the protoplasm will creep up against the current of water and spread over the slide, forming delicate threads in which most active streaming movements of the central granular protoplasm may be seen under the microscope, and the ends of the branches may be seen to push forward much as we saw in the amœba. In order that the experiment may be successful, the whole apparatus should be carefully protected from the light, and allowed to stand for several hours. This power of movement, as well as the power to take in solid food, are eminently animal characteristics, though the former is common to many plants as well.

      After a longer or shorter time the mass of protoplasm contracts and gathers into little heaps, each of which develops into a structure that

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