CHAPTER I 

 THE PLANT: A GENERAL EXTERNAL VIEW 



12. Seed Plants and Other Plants. — Of the many kinds 

 of plants we shall consider first those most familiar to you. 

 One simple way in which to divide aU plants into two 

 groups is to divide them into those which produce seeds 

 and those which do not. Ferns and mosses, seaweed and 

 pond scum, toadstools and mushrooms, are examples of 

 plants which do not produce seeds. But all the familiar 

 trees and shrubs and herbs, and the plants which the farmer 

 grows in his fields, are seed plants, and we shall con- 

 sider seed plants first. Whenever the word plant is used 

 in this part of the hook the thing referred to is a green plant 

 which produces seeds. We shall consider how seed plants 

 are constructed, how they live, and how they reproduce 

 their kind. 



13. Plant Life and Ours. — You know that a plant is a 

 living thing. You may have wondered how its Hfe com- 

 pares with your own. You may have wondered how it is 

 constructed and what is going on inside of it. 



You and a plant are, of course, very different in appear- 

 ance, but as to what must be done in order to keep alive, 

 you and a plant are a good deal alike. To understand the 

 ways in which you and a plant are ahke is even more im- 

 portant than to understand the ways in which you are 

 different. It is the likeness between all living things 



38 



