Elements of Plant Biology 



CHAPTER 

 INTRODUCTORY. PLANTS AND ANIMALS 



Botany is that part of biology specially concerned 

 with those living organisms we call plants. Plants 

 form the basis of all life as it is lived upon the earth, 

 because they alone have the power of making new 

 supplies of what are called organic substances — the 

 only substances on which animals can feed — out of 

 inorganic substances. And the study of plants teaches 

 us some things about life which we cannot learn, 

 and others which we cannot so easily learn, from the 

 study of animals. It is therefore necessary not only 

 for all those who want to acquire some knowledge of 

 biology as a whole, but also for those who will be daily 

 concerned in their profession with the most highly 

 developed and most complex of all living organisms 

 — man — to learn something about plants if they are 

 to acquire a firm foundation for their later studies. 

 It is not necessary for them to gain the detailed and 

 comprehensive knowledge that the botanist has to 

 acquire, and their studies should be directed rather 

 to what plants can teach them about life as a whole 

 than to a knowledge of plants for their own sakes. 

 The title of this book, which is designed especially 

 for the medical student who knows nothing of biology, 



