. Elementary text-book of zoology, tr. and ed. by Adam Sedgwick, with the assistance of F. G. Heathcote. 20 ANIMALS AND 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
. Elementary text-book of zoology, tr. and ed. by Adam Sedgwick, with the assistance of F. G. Heathcote. 20 ANIMALS AND 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 ; London, Please note that these images are extracted from scan
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