14 THE STORY OF THE PLANTS. 



to account for their growth and their peculiari- 

 ties. 



And now let me sum up again these central 

 ideas of our future reading on plants and their 

 history. 



Plants are living things ; they eat with their 

 leaves, and drink with their rootlets. They take 

 up carbon from the air, and water from the soil, 

 and build the materials so derived into their own 

 bodies. Plants also marry and are given in 

 marriage. They have often two sexes, male and 

 female. Each seed is thus the product of a 

 separate father and mother. Plants are of many 

 kinds, and we must inquire by and by how they 

 came to be so. Plants live on sea and land, and 

 have varieties specially fitted for almost every 

 situation. Plants have very varied ways of 

 securing the fertilisation of their flowers, and 

 look after the future of their young, like good 

 parents tha^ they are, in many ditierent man- 

 ners. Plants are higher and lower, exactly like 

 animals. 



These are some of the points we must proceed 

 to consider at greater length in the following 

 pages. 



CHAPTER II. 



HOW PLANTS BEGAN TO BE. 



Which came first — the plant or the animal ? 



That question is almost as absurd as if one 

 were to ask. Which came first — the beast of 

 prey, or the animals it preys upon? Clearly, 



