. Agricultural news. Agriculture -- West Indies; Plant diseases -- West Indies. in THE AGKICULTURAL NEWS. March 19, 1910. FUNGUS NOTES. Fig. Oil 9. ZOdSI'OEES OF idiiim limxsicac. THE CHIEF GROUPS OF FUNGI. Paet II. THE SIMPLEST OF PLANT LIFE. All the plOCeSSeS of life .ire invariably connected with a peculiar colourless, jelly- like substance of a very complicated structure, and containing very many different chenrical compounds. This substance is known as protoplasm. Generally, a small portion of this, which is even of a more complicated nature than the rest, is sejiarated from it, and
. Agricultural news. Agriculture -- West Indies; Plant diseases -- West Indies. in THE AGKICULTURAL NEWS. March 19, 1910. FUNGUS NOTES. Fig. Oil 9. ZOdSI'OEES OF idiiim limxsicac. THE CHIEF GROUPS OF FUNGI. Paet II. THE SIMPLEST OF PLANT LIFE. All the plOCeSSeS of life .ire invariably connected with a peculiar colourless, jelly- like substance of a very complicated structure, and containing very many different chenrical compounds. This substance is known as protoplasm. Generally, a small portion of this, which is even of a more complicated nature than the rest, is sejiarated from it, and is denser. It is usually spherical in shape, and is known as the nucleus. The nucleus is that part which controls all the different physical and chemical processes which take place in the rest of the protoplasm. Many of the simplest forms of life, therefore, consist of a more or less shapeless mass of the jelly-like substance of a very minute size, which contains one or more nuclei. Such forms of life are most frecjuently met with in water, as there they are less exposed to sudden changes of tem- perature, or to any danger of drought, or of encountering strong solutions of chemical substances, which might injure the proto- plasm. Frequently, these minute liv- ing bodies are of a definite egg- shape, and have attached to their sharper end one or more very fine, thread-like outgrowths. Such a thread is known as a cilium. It possesses the power of independent move- ment, and by lashing about in the water enables the organism to swim, in this way giving it a better chance of obtain- ing its food. If, to such an organism as the one just described, the green colouring substance known as chlorophyll is added, we obtain the very simplest form of plant known. Such a plant is complete in itself, and can obtain all its food-supplies from the chemical substan- ces dissolved in the water in which it lives. It swims about for some time, until it attains a certain size, after which it divide
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