Living Plants and Animals Contrasted 107 



It is evident that there is no single difference which distinguishes all 

 plants from all animals, but studies of large numbers of both groups 

 reveal that they have much in common. In order that comparisons and 

 contrasts may be made between simple and complex plants on the one 

 hand and simple and complex animals on the other, it is suggested that 

 representatives of both groups be studied with these viewpoints in mind. 

 The higher plants and higher animals may be rather readily available, 

 but the lower, simpler plants and animals may not be. It would be a 

 worth-while exercise to study the simple plants and animals that inhabit 

 a fresh-water pool. These may be supplemented with selected speci- 

 mens which illustrate points of difference mentioned above. 



QUESTIONS AND TOPICS 



1. Define a plant and an animal in the light of the knowledge gained in this 

 chapter; 



2. List and explain each of the principal differences between the group of plants 

 as a whole and the group of animals as a whole. 



3. Give reasons why you think animals and plants are closely related and may 

 have had a common ancestry. 



4. Discuss the significance of such organisms which we call plant-animals. 



5. Need there be clear-cut differences between plants and animals ? Why ? 



6. List some of the more common characteristics possessed by both plants and 

 animals, 



7. If you make a field or laboratory study of the various plants and animals 

 encountered in a fresh-water pool, what conclusions can you draw? 



SELECTED REFERENCES* 



Bates: The Nature of Natural History, Charles Scribner's Sons. 



Calkins: The Smallest Living Things, The University Society. 



Chapman: Animal Ecology, With Especial Reference to Insects, McGraw-Hill 



Book Co., Inc. 

 Comstock: Handbook of Nature Study, Comstock Publishing Co., Inc. 

 Fasset: Manual of Aquatic Plants, McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc. 

 Gates: Field Manual of Plant Ecology, McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc. 

 Hausman: Beginner's Guide to Seashore Life, G. P. Putnam's Sons. 

 Jacques: Living Things — How to Know Them, William C. Brown Co. 

 Miner: Seashore Life, G. P. Putnam's Sons. 



Morgan: Field Book of Ponds and Streams, G. P. Putnam's Sons. 

 Muenscher: Aquatic Plants, Comstock Publishing Co., Inc. 

 Needham and Needham: Guide to the Study of Fresh-Water Biology, Comstock 



Publishing Co., Inc. 

 Pratt: Manual of Common Invertebrate Animals, A. C. McClurg & Co. 

 Ward and Whipple: Fresh Water Biology, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 

 Welch: Limnology, McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc. 



*This list of references deals primarily with animals and plants in water. References for 

 other plants and animals are found in various other chapters. 



