. Plant life [microform]. Botany; Botanique. 80 THE STORY OF THE PLANTS. I SI The earlie&o way is, when a single cell divides in the middle, to form two others; a somewhat less primitive way is when a single cell breaks sud- denly up, and produces from itself a wholo swarm of young ones. In both these ways, however, there is no trace of sex; only one single cell is concerned in the process; the plants have a mother, perhaps, but certainly not a father. The thread-like pond-weeds, however, which are slightly higher plants in tho scale of being than the single- 4 celled floating types, show
. Plant life [microform]. Botany; Botanique. 80 THE STORY OF THE PLANTS. I SI The earlie&o way is, when a single cell divides in the middle, to form two others; a somewhat less primitive way is when a single cell breaks sud- denly up, and produces from itself a wholo swarm of young ones. In both these ways, however, there is no trace of sex; only one single cell is concerned in the process; the plants have a mother, perhaps, but certainly not a father. The thread-like pond-weeds, however, which are slightly higher plants in tho scale of being than the single- 4 celled floating types, show us the first beginnings of something like plant-marriage. These hair-like I little weeds con^jist oach of a single thread or siring of cells, placed end on end together, like beads or pearls in a iiecklet, and con- \ taining green chlorophyll. You can find them in almost any stag- nant pond in spring, where they -BEGIN- cling to the side in soft greenish NiNes OF SEX moss-like or velvety masses. But iNAPONDWEEu, jf y^ij cxamiue one slimy string VERY MUCH S • ni MAGNIFIED. ^^^^r a microscope, you will see a curious thing often hap- pening between the threads of two such hair-like plants. As they grow side by side, two of the strings will sometimes range themselves just parallel to one another, with their cells facing (Fig. 14). Then each opposite pair of cells begins to bulge a little at the point where they nearly touch {a and b in the figure), till at last. FIG. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original Allen, Grant, 1848-1899. London : Hodder and Stoughton
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