Sea-anemones are fixed to the rock on
which they grow, while some of the lower plants are able to move from
place to place, and it is hardly safe to affirm that a jelly-fish is more
conscious of its actions than is a Sensitive Plant, the leaves of which
close when the stem is touched.
There is no real division between animals and plants. We try to classify
the objects about us into groups, according to the closeness of their
relationships, but we must always remember that these hard lines are ours,
not Nature's. We attempt, for purposes of our own convenience, to divide a
whole, which is so bound together that it cannot be separated into parts
that we can confidently place on different sides of a dividing line.
1. _Plants as Food-Producers_.--The chief distinguishing characteristic of
plants is one that the pupils may be led to think out for themselves by
asking them what animals feed upon. To help them with this, ask them what
they had for breakfast. Oatmeal is mentioned, perhaps. This is made from
oats, which is a plant. Coffee and tea, bread made from wheat, potatoes,
etc., all come from plants.[1] Beef, butter and milk come from the cow,
but the cow lives upon grass. The plant, on the other hand, is nourished
upon mineral or inorganic matter. It can make its own food from the soil
and the air, while animals can only live upon that which is made for
them by plants. These are thus the link between the mineral and animal
kingdoms.
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