﻿PLANTS VERSUS ANIMALS 



Since this bulletin is concerned with trees and trees are plants, 

 the proper use of it entails the right concepts as to what a plant 

 is, its relation to other plants and animals, and to its environ- 

 ment. The following paragraphs are devoted to an elaboration 

 of this phase of the subject. While the information thus 

 imparted is treated in a general and cursory way and is likely 

 to prove uninteresting, a proper conception and understanding 

 of plants, and of their classification and general morphology is 

 absolutely essential if one would glean the most from the descrip- 

 tions which follow in the text. 



People w^ho are not conversant with plants and their life activi- 

 ties are prone to place them in a category entirely apart from 

 animals. They do not think of them as living organisms which, 

 like animals, must meet the vicissitudes of a varying, shall I say 

 even hostile, environment, but more of the nature of inanimate 

 objects, bound through the nature of things to one spot, capable 

 of growth, 'tis true, but insensible to most of their surroundings. 

 It may be conceded that the higher plants do lack motility. They 

 do not respond instantly to aggression by teeth or claws or flight. 

 Nevertheless the response is none the less sure, though less imme- 

 diate. It may continue over daj's or months or years, but it is 

 none the less certain. Plants differ from animals strikingly in 

 being more plastic to their environment. Once the idea of plant 

 dynamics is thoroughly ingrained the study of plants becomes 

 not a toilsome journey in the identification of the inanimate, but 

 rather a fascinating vista which beckons us onward to greater 

 discoveries and a happier understanding of the power of the 

 Infinite. 



Life on this planet is absolutely dependent on the activities 

 of green plants for it is in the green parts of plants that food 

 in its elementary stages is manufactured from the elements.* 

 There are plants which lack this green pigment, chlorophyll, 

 but these exist either as parasites or saprophytes on organic mat- 

 ter previously elaborated. There are herbivorous and carnivor- 

 ous animals. But these in turn are wholly dependent for their 

 existence on the metabolic processes which go on in the green 



* A few exceptions occur in the case of certain bacteria whicli build up compounds 

 by chenio-svnthesis. 



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