Part 620

The protophytes (Protophyta) are by some botanists considered an independent branch or class of the vegetable kingdom, and made to include the lowest forms of both fungi and algÊ, as slime molds, Bacteria, the nostocs, etc. Cf. Carpophyte, and Oˆphyte.

Pro`to*phy*tol"o*gy (?), n. [Proto- + phytology.] Paleobotany.

Pro"to*pine (?), n. [Proto- + opium.] (Chem.) An alkaloid found in opium in small quantities, and extracted as a white crystalline substance.

Pro"to*plasm (?), n. [Proto- + Gr. &?; form, fr. &?; to mold.] (Biol.) The viscid and more or less granular material of vegetable and animal cells, possessed of vital properties by which the processes of nutrition, secretion, and growth go forward; the so-called " physical basis of life;" the original cell substance, cytoplasm, cytoblastema, bioplasm sarcode, etc.

The lowest forms of animal and vegetable life (unicellular organisms) consist of simple or unaltered protoplasm; the tissues of the higher organisms, of differentiated protoplasm.

Pro`to*plas*mat"ic (?), a. Protoplasmic.

Pro`to*plas"mic (?), a. 1. Of or pertaining to the first formation of living bodies.

2. (Biol.) Of or pertaining to protoplasm; consisting of, or resembling, protoplasm.

Pro"to*plast (?), n. [L. protoplastus the first man, Gr. &?; formed or created first; &?; first + &?; formed, fr. &?; to form.]

1. The thing first formed; that of which there are subsequent copies or reproductions; the original.

2. (Biol.) A first-formed organized body; the first individual, or pair of individuals, of a species.

A species is a class of individuals, each of which is hypothetically considered to be the descendant of the same protoplast, or of the same pair of protoplasts.

Latham.

||Pro`to*plas"ta (?), n. pl. [NL.] (Zoˆl.) A division of fresh-water ||rhizopods including those that have a soft body and delicate branched ||pseudopodia. The genus Gromia is one of the best-known.

Pro`to*plas"tic (?), a. First- formed. Howell.

Pro*top"o*dite (?), n. [Proto- + Gr. &?;, &?;, foot.] (Zoˆl.) The basal portion, or two proximal and more or less consolidated segments, of an appendage of a crustacean.

Pro"to*pope (?), n. [Proto- + pope: cf. F. protopope, Russ. protopop'.] (Gr. Ch.) One of the clergy of first rank in the lower order of secular clergy; an archpriest; -- called also protopapas.

||Pro*top"te*rus (?), n. [NL., from Gr. &?; first + &?; a feather ||(taken to mean, fin).] (Zoˆl.) See Komtok.

Pro"to*salt (?), n. [Proto- + salt.] (Chem.) A salt derived from a protoxide base. [Obs.]

Pro`to*sil"i*cate (?), n. [Proto- + silicate.] (Chem.) A silicate formed with the lowest proportion of silicic acid, or having but one atom of silicon in the molecule.

Pro`to*so"mite (?), n. [Proto- + somite.] (Zoˆl.) One of the primitive segments, or metameres, of an animal.

Pro`to*sul"phide (?), n. [Proto- + sulphide.] (Chem.) That one of a series of sulphides of any element which has the lowest proportion of sulphur; a sulphide with but one atom of sulphur in the molecule.

Pro`to*sul"phu*ret (?), n. [Proto- + sulphuret.] (Chem.) A protosulphide. [Obs.]

||Pro`to*the"ri*a (?), n. pl. [NL., from Gr. prw^tos first + qhri`on, ||dim. of qh`r beast.] (Zoˆl.) Same as Monotremata.

||Pro`to*tra`che*a"ta (?), n. pl. [NL. See Proto-, and Trachea.] ||(Zoˆl.) Same as Malacopoda.

Pro"to*type (?), n. [F., from L. prototypus original, primitive, Gr. &?;, &?;; &?; first + &?; type, model. See Proto-, and Type] An original or model after which anything is copied; the pattern of anything to be engraved, or otherwise copied, cast, or the like; a primary form; exemplar; archetype.

They will turn their backs on it, like their great precursor and prototype.

Burke.