220 



LIVING PLANTS 



Characters to be 

 taken from the 

 active organism 



Reproductive 

 states to be 

 ignored 



Animals and 

 plants defined 



powers is the real and genuine organism to 

 which attention is to be directed. Secondary 

 characters may be drawn from adaptive and 

 more or less incidental structures, but not so 

 the primary ones. Of all adaptive or ecolo- 

 gical features of the organism the reproduc- 

 tive organs and processes are most prominent, 

 and have naturally attracted great attention. 

 Botany' has been popularly styled the study 

 of flowers, although flowers are only the dec- 

 orated vestibule to the real sanctuary of the 

 science. In tr^dng to discover the innermost 

 reasons for establishing a criterion between 

 the two great classes of beings, only the nor- 

 mal vegetative state of organisms need, there- 

 fore, be considered, and the reproductive state, 

 when the organism disports as a new-born 

 entity of naked protoplasm, or is reduced to 

 a spore or an egg, or hibernates in seed or 

 cyst with protective and dispersive append- 

 ages, may be ignored. We are to keep in view 

 only the vegetative organism, and not the 

 mode in which a succession of individuals is 

 maintained. 



The fundamental characters of animals and 

 plants may, in accordance with what has 

 been said, be given as follows : 



Plants are organisms possessing a carbo- 

 hydrous investment. 



