24 THE STORY OF THE PLANTS. 



after ; I will only anticipate now the result of 

 this discussion by saying briefly beforehand that 

 plants gain in this way, because greater variety is 

 secured in the offspring, and because the weak 

 points of one parent are likely to be reinforced 

 and made good by the other. 



Let us sum up our conclusions in this pre- 

 liminary chapter : 



Plants are an older type of life than animals. 

 They are the first and most original form of liv- 

 ing beings, and without them no life of any sort 

 would be possible. All living matter is manufac- 

 tured by plants out of material found floating in 

 the air, under the influence of sunlight. How 

 plants first came into existence we do not yet 

 know ; but we may suspect that they grew, in very 

 simple and small forms, at a remote period, under 

 conditions which now no longer exist. It is al- 

 most certain that the first plants were jelly-like 

 specks, floating freely in water. They must have 

 been green, and must also have possessed the 

 essential plant-power of building up fresh living 

 material when sunlight fell upon them. This pow- 

 er implies the other power of reproduction, that is 

 to say of splitting up into two or more similar 

 parts, each of which continues to live and grow 

 like the original body. From such simple and 

 very primordial plants all other and higher forms 

 are most likely descended. 



