-1 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



what it is I>u1 what it does. To Label, classify and 

 describe is only the mechanical pari of our work. Beyond 

 this we have the living- thing itself, its actions and its 

 influences on the world's life and the world itself. 



Tennyson's familiar lines may be used to illustrate my 

 meaning: — 



•• Flower in the crannied wall 

 1 pluck you out of the crannies, 

 Hold you here, root and all, in my hand. 

 Little flower, but if I could understand 

 What you are, root and all, and all in all 

 I should know what God and man is." 



I am tempted to ask: Would not the flower tell its 

 story better and more completely if left in the cranny and 

 not held, " root and all," in the hand? In one case it 

 takes its place in the great Earth's life, in the other only 

 its form remains, and scarcely that. 



The work of organisms is a wide subject, and one 

 which I do not feel myself competent to deal with in its 

 entirety. I will take then one small part and try to show 

 the part which animals and plants play in the making 

 and unmaking of the rocks forming the Earth's crnst. 

 They are not the only agents which produce changes in 

 the Earth's crust, but share their labours with rain, wind, 

 frost, stream, sea, and other agents. 



The effects produced by all these means are very 

 much alike, and follow the same stages. 



First we get the breaking up of rock masses, then the 

 transport of the disintegrated material, and its deposition 

 to form new rocks. Subsequent to deposition changes 

 may he brought about by the same agents. There is yet 

 another way in which organisms may affect the Earth's 

 crust, and this is the protection afforded by animals and 

 plants against disintegrating forces. 



