PART II 
THE VEGETATIVE FUNCTIONS OF PLANTS 
CHAPTER IV 

LOSS OF WATER 
28. Plants are Alive. The most fundamental concep- 
tion of a plant is that it is alive, just as truly and in the 
same sense as is any animal. Therefore it takes in water 
and food, respires, grows, moves, responds when stimu- 
lated, reproduces, grows old, and dies. We are so ac- 
customed to associate life with activity that one who, 
for example, views a large tree, especially in winter, 
stripped of its leaves, and apparently motionless, except 
when swayed by the wind, is not always conscious of the 
fact that the tree really is alive. A study of plants, 
however, teaches us the fallacy of the idea that life is 
always associated with evident motion. 
29. Kinds of Vital Activity. Everything a plant does 
affects either one of two things either (i) the main- 
tenance of the individual, or (2) the perpetuation of 
the race to which that individual belongs. These two 
classes of functions are known, respectively, as (i) 
vegetative and (2) reproductive. This and the next five 
chapters will deal with the vegetative functions of plants. 
30. Loss of Water Demonstrated. If a leafy branch, 
cut from any plant, is laid aside for a time it will, as is 
