Protoplasm in mucor.
12. Let us now examine in a similar way another of the simple plants with the special object in view of demonstrating the protoplasm. For this purpose we may take one of the plants belonging to the group of fungi. These plants possess no chlorophyll. One of several species of mucor, a common mould, is readily obtainable, and very suitable for this study.[3]
13. Mycelium of mucor.—A few days after sowing in some gelatinous culture medium we find slender, hyaline threads, which are very much branched, and, radiating from a central point, form circular colonies, if the plant has not been too thickly sown, as shown in [fig. 6]. These threads of the fungus form the mycelium. From these characters of the plant, which we can readily see without the aid of a microscope, we note how different it is from spirogyra.
To examine for protoplasm let us lift carefully a thin block of gelatine containing the mucor threads, and mount it in water on a glass slip. Under the microscope we see only a small portion of the branched threads. In addition to the absence of chlorophyll, which we have already noted, we see that the mycelium is not divided at short intervals into cells, but appears like a delicate tube with branches, which become successively smaller toward the ends.
14. Appearance of the protoplasm.—Within the tube-like thread now note the protoplasm. It has the same general appearance as that which we noted in spirogyra. It is slimy, or semi-fluid, partly hyaline, and partly granular, the granules consisting of minute particles (the microsomes). While in mucor the protoplasm has the same general appearance as in spirogyra, its arrangement is very different. In the first place it is plainly continuous throughout the tube. We do not see the prominent radiations of strands around a large nucleus, but still the protoplasm does not fill the interior of the threads. Here and there are rounded clear spaces termed vacuoles, which are filled with the watery fluid, cell-sap. The nuclei in mucor are very minute, and cannot be seen except after careful treatment with special reagents.
Fig. 6.
Colonies of mucor.
15. Movement of the protoplasm in mucor.—While examining the protoplasm in mucor we are likely to note streaming movements. Often a current is seen flowing slowly down one side of the thread, and another flowing back on the other side, or it may all stream along in the same direction.
16. Test for protoplasm.—Now let us treat the threads with a solution of iodine. The yellowish-brown color appears which is characteristic of protoplasm when subject to this reagent. If we attempt to stain the living protoplasm with a one per cent aqueous solution of eosin it resists it for a time, but if we first kill the protoplasm with strong alcohol, it reacts quickly to the application of the eosin. If we treat the living threads with glycerine the protoplasm is contracted away from the wall, as we found to be the case with spirogyra. While the color, form and structure of the plant mucor is different from spirogyra, and the arrangement of the protoplasm within the plant is also quite different, the reactions when treated by certain reagents are the same. We are justified then in concluding that the two plants possess in common a substance which we call protoplasm.
