BOTANY FOR BEGINNERS CHAP. 



and both of them spring from the lowly forms which are found 

 at the base. 



Higher Animals. Higher Plants. 



E.g. Horse. E.g. Oak. 



Lower forms 

 of life. 



Living and Non-living Bodies. It will be well to at 

 once consider the question of the differences between living and 

 non-living bodies ; and here a fairly clear boundary line can be 

 drawn. 



1. Living bodies are characterised by the nature of their 

 external form. Their shape is definite, and bounded more or 

 less by curved surfaces. Non-living bodies are either 

 amorphous, that is without shape ; or crystalline, that is bodies 

 with a definite shape. Crystals are bounded by flat surfaces 

 meeting in sharp edges. 



2. Living bodies are able to reproduce their kind, but non- 

 living bodies have not this power of reproduction. 



3. Living bodies take in food, which supplies material for 

 growth, the growth taking place from the inside. Non-living 

 bodies cannot take in food, but tjiey can increase in size if 

 placed under suitable conditions. The growth or increase in 

 size of a crystal always takes place on the outside, not 

 internally like the growth of either animals or plants. 



The Object of the Plant. Plants, then, are living things, 

 and we must learn to treat them as such. Plants produce 

 seeds, but not, as the reason is sometimes stated, for the use of 

 man, but so that the continuity of the particular race of plants 

 can be kept up. The living, working, struggling plant, has only 



