74 
SECOND BOOK. 
feed on the produce of plants, or on animals which 
have had plants for their food. If, then, there 
were no plants in the world, neither could there be 
any animal life. 
HOW PLANTS ARE REARED.— I. 
1. We have seen that a plant is a living thing, 
which feeds, breathes, grows, and in time dies. 
But a healthy plant does not die before it has 
provided for starting the growth of other plants 
of its own kind. The commonest way by which 
it does this is by bearing seeds, in each of which, 
as we have seen, there is the germ of a young 
plant, with enough food for its early stage of 
growth. 
2 . To give seeds to multiply its kind is the great 
purpose for which all the work of the plant goes 
on. Often it dies as soon as it has shed its seeds, 
leaving them, in turn, to start the same round, of 
life. 
3. If, then, we require to raise certain plants for 
our own use, we often obtain them by sowing 
seeds. But considerable care is needful; and we 
shall not get good plants merely by putting seed 
into the ground. Everyone has seen how plants 
of the same kind differ in size and in strength. 
A plant growing on soil that does not suit it is 
