Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 June 1892 — What Are Diatoms? [ARTICLE]

What Are Diatoms?

The plants in question are so small as to be seen only with the aid of the microscope; those of ordinary size, when magnified about three hundred and fifty diameters, appear about quarter of an inch long. Others are much larger. They are curious little plants with a silica shell, which, in certain places, is provided with little apertures through which living parts of the pl«nt protrude. In tbis way they are enabled to move about freety in the water by which they are generally surrounded, for, though they are not all strictly water plants, the}’ all need considerable water to enable them to thrive, and so are always found in wet places. Owing to their freedom of motion they we.e at one time supposed to be animals. Now it is known that they are plants, as they can perform all the functions of plants, and no animal, with all his superiority, high nature, etc., is able to do this. They are found everywhere in all inhabited countries, and -in fact, all over the seas, so it may be readily granted that a plant so commou and wide-spread as this should be quite familiar to every one. Again, «>t only are the living plants so wide spread and common, .but the shells of the dead ones remain intact for many years; and hi certain localities these tiny shells are so numerous as to form a large portion of the soil. Some of the best known of these localities are the sites of Richmond,Va., and Berlin in Germany.—[Popular Science Monthly.