Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 21.djvu/310

298 rapid growth, with finely transparent walls (Fig. 16). Each cell has a large nucleus, which, while variable and varying, is quite constant in position, and often shows one or more vacuoles. Out to the very limits of the cell, sweeping its every corner from the nucleus as a center, vital streams go forth—streams now wide and sweeping, now narrowing and again swelling, or pouring along to join some neighboring current; now forming temporary vacuoles, now bearing on strong tide



particles large and small, granules of chlorophyl and what not; now branching in various directions, now diminishing to merest threads, forming and fading away, finally disappearing below the field of vision, only to reappear once more at the place of starting. The changes of movement and appearance are so rapid that no drawing can be true for more than a single moment.

In studies such as these we might pass on from plant to plant, in garden, on highways, in forest and on prairie, until time should fail and patience be well wearied. The "Song of Nature" is true: