Elementary text-book of zoology, tr Elementary text-book of zoology, tr. and ed. by Adam Sedgwick, with the assistance of F. G. Heathcote elementarytextbo01clau Year: 1892-1893 of complex compounds, and is essentially an oxidation process, by which potential energy is converted into kinetic (movement, produc- tion of heat, light). The vital activity of plants, on the contrary, is based, so far as it relates to assimilation, on synthesis, and is essentially a process of reduction; under the influence of which the energy of warmth and light is stored up, kinetic energy being converted into pote
Elementary text-book of zoology, tr Elementary text-book of zoology, tr. and ed. by Adam Sedgwick, with the assistance of F. G. Heathcote elementarytextbo01clau Year: 1892-1893 of complex compounds, and is essentially an oxidation process, by which potential energy is converted into kinetic (movement, produc- tion of heat, light). The vital activity of plants, on the contrary, is based, so far as it relates to assimilation, on synthesis, and is essentially a process of reduction; under the influence of which the energy of warmth and light is stored up, kinetic energy being converted into potential. Nevertheless, this difference also is not applicable as a test in all cases. Recently the attention of investigators has been turned, especially by Hooker and Darwin,* to the remarkable nutri- tive and digestive processes in a group of plants which Avere first observed a hundred years ago (Ellis). The plants in question catch, after the manner of animals, small organisms, especially in- 'eafof Droserarotundifolia, sects> and absorb from them through with partially contracted tentacles the glandular surface of their leaves (after Darwin). , . the organic matter after a chemical process resembling animal digestion (leaves of the Sun-dew, Drosera rotundifolia, and the fly-catcher, Dioncea muscipula. Figs. 7 & 8). Many parasitic plants and almost all fungi have not, however, in general, the power of making organic substances from inorganic, but suck up organic juices; and in taking up oxygen and giving out carbonic acid, they present a respi- ratory process resembling that found in animals. It was established by Saussure's observations that all plants require oxygen at certain intervals; that in those parts of plants which are not green, not possessing chlorophyll, and alt-o in the green parts in the absence of sunlight, at night, a consumption of oxygen and exhalation * Compare especially Ch. Darwin, ' Insectivorous Plants.' London, 1875. FIG. 8.—Leaf o
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