134 PROTECTION OF THE GREEN TISSUE 



XI. 



PROTECTION OF THE GREEN TISSUE FROM THE 

 ATTACKS OF ANIMALS. 1 



THE cells of plants contain albuminoids similar 

 to the white of egg, and in their green tissues are 

 formed carbohydrates, such as starch and sugar, 

 which are easily digestible. What wonder that 

 numberless animals find this green tissue a very 

 desirable food ! Many animals, as is well known, 

 live entirely at the expense of plants. In this 

 respect the animal and vegetable kingdoms are 

 hostile to each other, for the removal of all the 

 green parts of the plant ensures its destruction, if 

 its store of reserve food is exhausted. Hunger 

 drives grazing animals to snatch the plants unmer- 

 cifully, and thus completely destroy them. The 

 beasts cannot foresee, as men do, that if the plant 

 be robbed of all its green organs it will die, and 

 that, consequently, in the following year, their 

 own existence will be imperilled for lack of food. 

 Man leaves enough of the plants which he uses to 



1 Condensed extracts from "Pflanzenleben," Vol. I. p. 399. 



