CHAPTEE I. 



INTRODUCTORY. 



I PROPOSE in this volume to write in brief the 

 history of plants, their origin and their develop- 

 ment. I shall deal with them all, both big and 

 little, from the cedar that is in Lebanon to the 

 hyssop that springeth out of the wall. I shall 

 endeavour to show how they first came into 

 existence, and by what slow degrees they have 

 been altered and moulded into the immense 

 variety of tree, shrub, and herb, palm, mush- 

 room, and sea- weed we now behold before us. 

 In short, I shall treat the history of plants much 

 as one treats the history of a nation, beginning 

 with their simple and unobtrusive origin, and 

 tracing them up through varying stages to their 

 highest point of beauty and efficiency. 



Plants are living things. That is the first 

 idea we must clearly form about them. They 

 are living in just the same sense that you and 

 I are. They were born from a seed, the joint 

 product of two previous individuals, their father 

 and mother. Plants likewise live by eating ; 

 they have mouths and stomachs, which devour, 

 digest, and assimilate the food supplied to them. 

 These mouths and stomachs exist in the shape of 

 leaves, whose business it is to catch floating 



