00000437 |
Previous | 437 of 595 | Next |
|
small (250x250 max)
medium (500x500 max)
Large
Extra Large
large ( > 500x500)
Full Resolution
All (PDF)
|
394
LIFE.
yet below the world of insects, crustaceans, mollusks, worms, and echino-
derms, moves an immense swarm of animalculse, which are at once the
admiration and the despair of those who seek to investigate them by aid
of the microscope. The organs of these wonderful creatures escape our
sight; often even the drop of water in which they move, and which is
their universe, is invisible to the naked eye; but they compensate for their
smallness by the variety of their forms. Man can certainly attempt,
thanks to method and accumulated observations-, to enumerate the infinitely small species; but the task is hardly begun, and it is pursued with
difficulty beyond the world of visible insects in that obscurity where
only the thought of the mathematician seeking to apprehend atoms has
penetrated. At all events, that which wTe already know enables us to
recognize, at least from the mammal to the insect, a law of progression
according to which the species are more and more rare in proportion as
they rise in the series of beings. In acquiring complication of structure,
they lose in diversity of form; they improve, and become, so to say, a resume of the inferior species, but at the same time they are more and more
limited in number, as if nature required more strength to produce them.
By a remarkable contrast, it is precisely the contrary that we observe in
the vegetable world. There it seems that the numbers of species and
individuals increase in proportion to their degree of development. The
phanerogams have many more representatives than the cryptogams.
The dicotyledons are more numerous than the monocotyledons, and in
these two great divisions of plants with visible flowers, it is the highest
families, the graminaceous and composite plants, which are also the richest.*
If the multitude of species which constitute the whole of the earth's
fauna does not yield in number to that ofthe flora, the host of individuals
is equally innumerable; nothing more numerous can be imagined than the
herbs and vegetables of every sort which clothe the surface of the earth.
It is true that, in consequence of their relative independence, animals are
much less visible in nature, while vegetation forms a continuous carpet
over the globe, and the green of the trees or the grass appears to us like
the normal color ofthe surface of the earth; animals, hidden under the
verdure or in holes in the ground, seem at times to be completely absent
from the landscape. On the other hand, the vegetables requiring a nourishing soil to support them, only spread over its surface, while a number
of animals can, owing to the freedom of their movements, be accumulated
in enormous masses on the earth, or fly in clouds toward the sky, or else
move in myriads in the depths ofthe sea. The atmosphere and the ocean,
no less than the surface of the earth, are the domain of animal life; it is
only by millions that one can estimate the number of the passenger-pigeons
of the United States, whose bands, traversing the sky with a speed of fifty
miles an hour, take three days in passing by; it is by milliards that we
estimate the grasshoppers which descend upon the provinces, and cover
* Schleiden, Das Meer, p. 165.
| Title | The ocean, atmosphere, and life |
| Creator | Reclus, Elisée |
| Publisher | Harper |
| Place of Publication | New York |
| Date | 1873 |
| Language | eng |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Title | 00000437 |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Transcript | 394 LIFE. yet below the world of insects, crustaceans, mollusks, worms, and echino- derms, moves an immense swarm of animalculse, which are at once the admiration and the despair of those who seek to investigate them by aid of the microscope. The organs of these wonderful creatures escape our sight; often even the drop of water in which they move, and which is their universe, is invisible to the naked eye; but they compensate for their smallness by the variety of their forms. Man can certainly attempt, thanks to method and accumulated observations-, to enumerate the infinitely small species; but the task is hardly begun, and it is pursued with difficulty beyond the world of visible insects in that obscurity where only the thought of the mathematician seeking to apprehend atoms has penetrated. At all events, that which wTe already know enables us to recognize, at least from the mammal to the insect, a law of progression according to which the species are more and more rare in proportion as they rise in the series of beings. In acquiring complication of structure, they lose in diversity of form; they improve, and become, so to say, a resume of the inferior species, but at the same time they are more and more limited in number, as if nature required more strength to produce them. By a remarkable contrast, it is precisely the contrary that we observe in the vegetable world. There it seems that the numbers of species and individuals increase in proportion to their degree of development. The phanerogams have many more representatives than the cryptogams. The dicotyledons are more numerous than the monocotyledons, and in these two great divisions of plants with visible flowers, it is the highest families, the graminaceous and composite plants, which are also the richest.* If the multitude of species which constitute the whole of the earth's fauna does not yield in number to that ofthe flora, the host of individuals is equally innumerable; nothing more numerous can be imagined than the herbs and vegetables of every sort which clothe the surface of the earth. It is true that, in consequence of their relative independence, animals are much less visible in nature, while vegetation forms a continuous carpet over the globe, and the green of the trees or the grass appears to us like the normal color ofthe surface of the earth; animals, hidden under the verdure or in holes in the ground, seem at times to be completely absent from the landscape. On the other hand, the vegetables requiring a nourishing soil to support them, only spread over its surface, while a number of animals can, owing to the freedom of their movements, be accumulated in enormous masses on the earth, or fly in clouds toward the sky, or else move in myriads in the depths ofthe sea. The atmosphere and the ocean, no less than the surface of the earth, are the domain of animal life; it is only by millions that one can estimate the number of the passenger-pigeons of the United States, whose bands, traversing the sky with a speed of fifty miles an hour, take three days in passing by; it is by milliards that we estimate the grasshoppers which descend upon the provinces, and cover * Schleiden, Das Meer, p. 165. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| B |
|
| C |
|
| G |
|
| H |
|
| M |
|
| T |
|
| U |
|
| Y |
|
|
|
