78 EVOLUTION 



clearly discerned that there are only two: 

 th^ livjjQg an(j| tl^e Tjon-liviflgj the truly organ- 

 ized and the merely aggregated. Hence in 

 his immortal "System of Nature" he unites 

 \- Animalia ancL Vegetabilia as_Ojrgq.Tiisata. and 

 ^, separates Mineralja^ as Conserta. True, he 

 falls somewhat from this again, witness his 

 famous, but very fallacious, aphorism 

 "Minerals grow; Plants grow and live; 

 Animals grow, live and feel"; yet the great 

 distinction of life is not lost sight of. 



Since Claude Bernard, more than a genera- 

 tion ago, wrote his famous book, "Pheno- 

 menes de la vie communs aux animaux et 

 aux vegetaux," it has been recognized that 

 the beech-tree feeds and grows, digests_aiid 

 J3ga0ies, as really as does the squirrel on its 

 branches; that in regard to none of the main 

 functions (except excretion, which plants 

 have little of) is there any essential differ- 

 ence; and that plants, though for the most 

 part, as it were, asleep, give many striking 

 illustrations of their power of movement and 

 their irritability. 



We must remember also t|ja.t. 



are a.1i>e i^ fundamental architec- 

 being built up of cells and various mod- 

 ifications of cells. And there is a third deep 

 resemblance, that when we trace a beech- 

 tree or a squirrel back to its individual begin- 



