8 



ANIMALS, MINERALS, AND PLANTS 



are dependent for their very existence upon inorganic sub- 

 stances, and ultimately, when life is extinct, they are re- 

 duced to the same inorganic mineral materials from whence 

 they spriuig. 



Notwithstantling the dependence of animals upon min- 

 erals, there is unc[uestionably a great difference between 



them. This cliff erence 

 resii les largely in the fact 

 that animals possess that 

 subtle and indefinable 

 characteristic called life, 

 while minerals do not. 

 On the other hand, the 

 difi'erence that exists be- 

 tween animals and min- 

 erals does not exist 

 between animals and 

 plants; for both of the 

 latter possess life and 

 hence are evidently much 

 more closely related to 

 each other than to min- 

 erals. In fact, so closely 

 do animals and plants 

 resemble each other in some cases, that it is often im- 

 possible to tell them apart. For example, look at the 

 animal and the plant shown in Figure 1, aiul note the 

 impossibility of deciding from appearances which is an 

 animal and wliich is a plant. It is easy enough to 

 tell a horse from a tree, but as we go lower in the 

 scale of life, animals and plants liecome more and more 

 alike in appearance. In fact, it is impossible to give a 



Fig. 1. — -4,Gorgonia: C, l'\icus. 



