CHAPTER V 



STRUCTURE AND LIFE OF A PLANT: AN INTRO- 

 DUCTION TO PLANT BIOLOGY* 



65. Introductory Study of a Plant. The lesson on " Life- 

 activities of a Plant " ( 24-28) has already called our 

 attention to various processes which are characteristic of 

 living plants. They move, use food, breathe, reproduce, 

 and perform other functions much as do animals. In order 

 to understand how plants are able to carry on these life-pro- 

 cesses we shall now enter upon a careful study of a plant 

 selected because it illustrates the structure and work of 

 other plants. We shall see later that much of what is 

 learned from the study of one plant applies to all plants, 

 and that a knowledge of plants helps us to understand many 

 things in the somewhat similar life-processes of animals. 



The word " plant " usually calls to mind familiar trees, 

 garden vegetables, and ornamental plants (" flowers "). 

 In fact, most of the plants known to those who have not 

 studied botany belong to the highest groups, which are often 

 galled the flowering plants. But the kingdom of plants is 

 not limited to the flowering plants ; f for in addition it includes 

 a vast variety of forms known in popular science as flowerless 

 plants. Examples of these latter which will be studied in this 

 book are ferns, mosses, toadstools and mushrooms, sea-weeds, 

 molds, yeasts, and bacteria. Some of these are of micro- 



* To THE TEACHER : This chapter may be studied before the preceding 

 chapter on the frog, if there are reasons for beginning with plant study. 

 See note in "Teachers' Manual," Chapter V. 



t It is pointed out later that seed-plants is a better name for the highest 

 group of plants. 



66 



