DISTINCTIONS BETWEEN ANIMALS AND PLANTS. 3 
rganisms is inorganic particles. The slime-moulds called 
fyxomycetes, however, envelop the plant or low animals, 
wich as an Ame@ba throws itself around some living plant 
nd absorbs its protoplasm ; but Myxomycetes, in their man- 
er of taking food, are an exception to other moulds. The 
»west animals swallow other living animals whole or in 
ieces ; certain forms like Ameba (Fig. 2) bore into minute 
lg and absorb their pro- 
yplasm ; others engulf sili- 
ious-shelled plants (diatoms) 
bsorbing their protoplasm. 
Yo animal swallows silica, 
‘me, ammonia, or any of 
he phosphates as food. On 
he other hand, plants manu- Fig. 2,—Ameeba, a Protozoan, The right- 
hand figure shows three pseudopodia on 
acture or produce from in- the right side; in the two other figures the 
pseudopodia are withdrawn in the body- 
rganic matter starch,* sugar mass. 
nd nitrogenous substances which constitute the. food of 
nimals. During assimilation, plants absorb carbonic acid, 
nd in sunlight exhale oxygen; during growth and work 
hey, like animals, consume oxygen and exhale carbonic acid. 
Animals move and have special organs of locumotion ; 
aw plants move, though some climb, and minute forms 
ave thread-like processes or vibratile lashes (cilia) resem- 
ling the flagella of monads, and flowers open and shut, but 
hese motions of the higher plants are purely mechanical, 
nd not performed by special organs controlled by nerves. 
‘he mode of reproduction of plants and animals, however. 
3 fundamentally identical, and in this respect the two king- 
oms unite more closely than in any other. Flants also, 
‘ke animals, are formed of cells, the latter in the higher 
orms combined into tissues. 
As the lowest plants and animals are scarcely distinguish- 
ble, it is probable that plants and animals first appeared 
ontemporaneously ; and while plants are generally said 
9 form the basis of animal life, this is only partially true ; 
large number of fungi are dependent on decaying animal 
iatter; and most of the Protozoa live on animal food, as 
* Starch has been found by Bergh in Ciliv-tiagellate Infusoria. 
