ee IV 
PLANT LIFE 
CHAPTER I 
INTRODUCTION 
A GENERAL survey of the Animal and Plant 
kingdoms emphasises in the clearest manner 
the cardinal importance of the great functions 
of nutrition and reproduction. It also en- 
ables us to perceive the intimate relation 
which exists between the full discharge of 
these functions and the evolution of the higher 
from the lower forms of life. We are further 
led to conclude that there is no great gulf 
separating the animal from the plant, but 
that the similarities which exist between the 
two great classes of living things are even more 
striking than are the obvious differences, at 
any rate in so far as essentials are concerned. 
Indeed, the differences consist in features which 
are, after all, mainly of secondary importance, 
and they are largely determined by the 
divergent methods of obtaining food which 
characterise the animal and the plant respec- 
tively. 
Casting our glance still further afield, the 
boundary line between the organic and the 
9 
