PLANT LIFE 



CHAPTER I 



INTRODUCTION 



A GENERAL survey of the Animal and Plant 

 kingdoms emphasises in the clearest manner 

 the cardinal importance of the great functions 

 of nutrition and reproduction. It also en- 

 ables us to perceive the intimate relation 

 which exists between the full discharge of 

 these functions and the evolution of the higher 

 from the lower forms of life. We are further 

 led to conclude that there is no great gulf 

 separating the animal from the plant, but 

 that the similarities which exist between the 

 two great classes of living things are even more 

 striking than are the obvious differences, at 

 any rate in so far as essentials are 'concerned. 

 Indeed, the differences consist in features which 

 are, after all, mainly of secondary importance, 

 and they are largely determined by the 

 divergent methods of obtaining food which 

 characterise the animal and the plant respec- 

 tively. 



Casting our glance still further afield, the 

 boundary line between the organic and the 

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