The elements of botany for The elements of botany for beginners and for schools elementsbotany00gray Year: 1887 SECTION IC] MOVEMENTS. 149 they restore an equal bulk of life-sustaiuing oxygen needful forthe respiration of auiaials, — needful, also, in a certain measure, for plants in any work they do. For in plants, as well as in animals, work is done at a certain cost. § 6. PLANT WORK AND MOVEMENT. 458. As tlie organic basis and truly living material of plants is identical with that of animals, so is the life at bottom essentially the same; but in animals something is added at every rise fro
The elements of botany for The elements of botany for beginners and for schools elementsbotany00gray Year: 1887 SECTION IC] MOVEMENTS. 149 they restore an equal bulk of life-sustaiuing oxygen needful forthe respiration of auiaials, — needful, also, in a certain measure, for plants in any work they do. For in plants, as well as in animals, work is done at a certain cost. § 6. PLANT WORK AND MOVEMENT. 458. As tlie organic basis and truly living material of plants is identical with that of animals, so is the life at bottom essentially the same; but in animals something is added at every rise from the lowest to highest organ- isms. Action and work in living behigs require movement. 459. Living things move; those not living are only moved. Plants move as truly as do animals. The latter, nourished as they are upon or- ganized food, which has been prepared for them by plants, and is found only here and there, must needs have the power of going after it, of collect- ing it, or at least of taking it in; which requires them to make spontaneous movements. But ordinary plants, with their wide-spread surface, always in contact with the earth and air on which they feed, — the latter every- where the same, and the former very mucli so, — might be thought to liave no need of movement. Ordinary plants, indeed, have no locomotion; some float, but most are rooted to the spot where tliey grew. Yet probably all of them execute various movements which must be as truly self-caused as are those of the lower grades of animals, — movements which are over- looked only because too slow to be directly observed. Neveitheless, the motion of the hour-hand and of the minute-hand of a watch is not less real than tliat of the second-hiaid. 460. Locomotion, iloreover, many microscopic plants living in water are seen to move freely, if not briskly, under the microscope; and so like- wise do more conspicuous aquatic plants in their embryo- like or seedling state. Even at maturity, species of O
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