Relation of Plants to Animals. 141 



serve the higher. Plants are directly or indirectly 

 the support of all animal life. No animals, unless 

 it be some of microscopic size, have power to live 

 upon inorganic matter. If they have power to 

 assimilate it at all, they have no power to assimilate 

 iffieient portion to sustain life. We have around 

 us an abundance of all the elements upon which we 

 daily live, but we have no power to take them in 

 their common form. If left to ourselves we must 

 starve in the midst of plenty. The plant lee. Is 

 upon these elements or their inorganic compounds. 

 Plants are the chemists, constantly working for the 

 welfare of the animal kingdom, bringing the ele- 

 ments within its power. If plants were destroyed, 

 animal life would cease. For, though carnivorous 

 animals may destroy others of the same kind, yet in 

 the end we come back to those animals that live 

 upon the fruits of the earth. 



Thei <>mc curious adaptations in the func- 



tion of certain plants, that show the relationship of 

 one kingdom to the other, and this general subser- 

 viency of the lower to the higher kingdom. Certain 

 insects sting the oak and other plants, deposit their 

 eggs in their stems or leaves, and then leave them 

 there for the young to be developed. In some cases 

 the young insect simply bores into the wood and 

 forms a dwelling and finds food for himself. The 

 only adaptation here seems to be in the fitness of 

 the material in which the egg was deposited by in- 

 stinct, to supply the wants of the grub while active* 

 ly providing for himself. 



