THE NEW EVOLUTION 



stems, trunk, roots, seeds and flowers — is used as food 

 by some animal type or other. 



Not only are all the animals supported by the green 

 plants, but multitudes of other kinds of plants, such 

 parasitic plants as the mistletoes and gold-threads and 

 many other less familiar sorts, and especially the 

 fungi, molds and rusts and many bacteria, live either 

 on them or on their dead remains. 



Such animals as are not plant feeders live on other 

 animals that feed on plants or on the parasitic or 

 saprophytic plants feeding on the living or the dead 

 green plants, or on the partially decomposed remains of 

 plant or animal substances. A few animals have been 

 described as capable of existing on mineral material 

 alone. But it is doubtful whether any animal can 

 do this without the intervention of some associated 

 plant. 



And besides all these there are numerous kinds of 

 parasitic plants, particularly bacteria and molds, 

 which live on or within the bodies of every sort of 

 animal, whether plant feeding or carnivorous. 



In short, we find plant feeding plants, plant feeding 

 animals, animal feeding plants and animal feeding 

 animals of every conceivable variety. There is no 

 reservoir or source of food of any kind, permanent 

 or temporary, that is not utilized by some sort of 

 living thing. 



At the beginning of the winter, or in the tropics of 

 the dry season, the leaves of the green plants cease to 

 function. In most of our plants and in many in the 

 tropics they wither and drop off. The dying and 



[40] 



