Show redwood trees largest bacteria smallest bits the largest living things are the giant red redwood trees the smallest are bic b terla both are plants bacteria are plants consisting of only a single cell while the redwood trees consist of countless millions of cells observes a writer in the missouri farmer man has been able to conquer ant an mils cultivate the soil improve his crops and build skyscrapers sky scrapers yet he is dependent on the simplest and small est living things for his material exist ence bacteria are often called beims or microbes perhaps the word germs Is used because these plants are so s milar to single celled animals they are so small that no one has ever seen one without the use of a micro scope they may be less than one twenty five thousandth of an inch in dameier d ameter and hundreds of thousands of them can live on an area the size of a pin head it was because of their smallness that no one ever saw one until the latter part of the seventeenth century when anthony van leeuwenhoek a hollinder hollander who Is credited with the invention of the microscope saw them while peering through his crude lenses later I 1 asheur the noted french sc se dentist in 1807 discovered discos ered thit that bacteria caused the bourl souring of mill LIM and fermentation then in 1882 clobert K koch coch a german discovered the bacteria causing tuberculosis |