Ellen Prescott

“ The light and heat set free by combustion we recognize as merely the expression of chemical change and a giving back to original elements the forces that were stored up by vegetative activity in the coal-beds of the past or in the woody fibers of later growth. ”

“ The "persistence of force" and the "indestructibility of matter" must first be proved, before it could be shown that the phenomena of phosphorescence are due to the same causes as the light evolved by electrical discharge, chemical combination, or mechanical movement. If, as Dr. Young has shown, light be motion or vibration of a luminiferous ether which fills space and permeates all bodies, the conditions of inexorable law are as fully met in the pale glimmer of luminous plants, the flash of the fire-fly, or the radiance of the glow-worm, as in the light evolved by the heavenly bodies. ”

“ Carpenter asserts that a decomposition of a portion of the absorbed material is the only conceivable source of the large quantity they are constantly giving out, and ascribes the very rapid growth of these plants to a "retrograde metamorphosis." The substances which enter into the new growth are already prepared by the foster-plant, and we find the parasite incapable of forming any new combination through the agency of light. ”

“ Wherever, then, we encounter decomposing vegetable matter, we observe some form of fungi living upon and appropriating the changed substances of a former condition to the generation of a new life. What, therefore, seems to us a loss or waste, is merely change—change of form, change of condition. The absorbing roots of these parasites grow into the tissues of the host in the most intimate manner, deriving from a disorganization of the substances the elements necessary to their own being. ”

“ The expression of light in flowering plants seems to be through the medium of electricity, while in cryptogams it resembles the steady glow of slow combustion. High microscopic power may, however, reveal, as in some cases of animal phosphorescence, the sparkle and flash of rapid and minute scintillations. ”

“ A comparison of the condition of flowering plants and of the mosses and fungi, during a phosphorescent display, will lead us to attribute the appearance to similar action of vital forces, if we for a moment review the processes by which these forces are accumulated. In the growth of plants heat acts as a dynamic agent, which the germ of the plant directs and uses. ”

“ The first action of growth consists in the conversion of the starch of the seed into a soluble form, and in chemically combining the starch, sugar, oil, and albumen by fermentation into the protoplasmic matter which supplies the material for the tissues of the plant. ”

“ The development of this force is most remarkable in tropical plants, where a large number of flowers are crowded together under a covering hood of spathe. The temperature increases periodically, growing greater in the afternoon and appearing like a "paroxysm of fever" which passes off with the decline of day—the greatest intensity always occurring during the shedding of the pollen. Any great increase of temperature is necessarily prevented by the equalizing effect of evaporation from the expanded surfaces of the leaves, and the water which pervades all the substances. ”

“ That increased chemical activity exists at the period of flowering is shown by the exhalation of an unusual amount of carbonic acid, and this increased action supplies the additional heat for the elaboration of the reproductive agents, whose preparation seems to be the highest expression of energy in vegetable organization. ”

“ Not only the blossoms but the leaves of many of the flowering plants have been observed to emit a phosphoric light under favorable conditions of the air—even the milky juice of several vegetables becomes luminous in the dark ”

“ The light, however, is usually emitted by the organs of reproduction; this is particularly the case in young fungi, while, in the older ones, after the luminosity has disappeared from the gills, the surface of the stipe becomes radiant. ”

“ This plant, like the true cavern-mosses, is emerald-green, and develops into root, stem, and leaf. The dainty fern-like leaves or fronds are of the very simplest organization, and a slender, threadlike stem rises from the apex, bearing upon its summit a valvular case or capsule which contains the reproductive cells or sporules. The root-hairs which give out the light appear like the tangled meshes of a spider's web ”