SPECIALISATION IN PLANTS XVIII. For Protection against Loss of Water 99 XIX. Specialisation for Climbing 104 XX. Parasites 109 XXI. Plants which eat Insects 114 XXII. Flower Structures in Relation to Insects 118 PART IV. THE FIVE GREAT CLASSES OF PLANTS XXIII. Flowering Plants 125 XXIV. The Pine-Tree Family 127 XXV. Ferns and their Relatives 133 XXVI. Mosses and their Relatives 138 XXVII. Algæ and Fungi 141 PART V. PLANTS IN THEIR HOMES XXVIII. Hedges and Ditches 145 XXIX. Moorland 153 XXX. Ponds 159 XXXI. Along the Shore 165 XXXII. In the Sea 173 XXXIII. Plants of Long Ago 178 XXXIV. Physical Geography and Plants 182 XXXV. Plant Maps 188 XXXVI. Excursions and Collecting 194 Index 197 PART I. THE LIFE OF THE PLANT CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY Many people do not realise that plants are alive. This mistake is due to the fact that plants are not so noisy and quick in their ways as animals, and therefore do not attract so much attention to themselves, their lives, and their occupations. When we look at a sunflower, surrounded by its leaves and standing still and upright in the sunlight, we do not realise at first that it is doing work; we do not connect the idea of work with such a thing of beauty, but look on it as we should on a picture or a statue. Yet all the time that plant is not only living its own life, but is doing work of a kind which animals cannot do. Its green leaves in the light are manufacturing food for the whole plant out of such simple materials that an animal could not use them at all as food. Even its beautiful flower is creating and building up the seeds which will form the sunflowers of the future. All animals directly or indirectly make use of the work done by plants in manufacturing food, for they either live on plants themselves, or eat other animals which do so. Plants are living, and therefore require food of some kind as well as air and water in the same way, and for the same purposes as do animals. As a rule, we cannot see them breathing and eating, but that is because we do not look in the right way. In our study of plants we must first learn how to see and question them properly, and when we have done this they will show themselves to us and tell us stories of their lives which are quite as interesting as any animal stories.