lants reproduce by means of seeds.

[Illustration: ROCKY MOUNTAIN GOAT

This animal is really not a goat, but is more nearly related to the
antelopes. Range: The higher mountains from Alaska south to California.
Group in American Museum of Natural History.]

Animals may be separated into two great groups, those without backbones
(invertebrates) like an oyster, a cricket, or an earthworm, and those
with backbones, e.g., a dog, a fish. In this brief study we shall not go
into much detail about invertebrates, but with the backboned animals or
vertebrates we shall go a little further. These may be divided into five
general groups: (1) Fishes; (2) Amphibians, which include frogs, toads,
and salamanders; (3) Reptiles, which include alligators, crocodiles,
turtles, lizards, and snakes; (4) Birds; (5) Mammals.

This simple analysis may be clearly shown by the following diagram:

{_Mammals_
{_Birds_
{_Vertebrates_{_Reptiles_
{ {_Amphibians_
{ {_Fishes_
{_Animals_{
{ {_Invertebrates_
{_Living Bodies_{
{ (_Organic_) { {_Flowering Plants_
_Objects_{ { {_Flowerless Plants_
_of_ {
_Nature_ {_Non-living Bodies_
{ (_Inorganic_)

This classification could be carried further at every point, but this
will be far enough for present purposes. It should be remembered in any
classification that there are no hard and fast lines in Nature. For
example, some creatures are on the border-land between plants and
animals, and again some animals are between the backboned animals and
those without backbones.

[Illustration: GREAT-LEAVED MAGNOLIA

A forest tree with large solitary white flowers. Range: Southern and
Southeastern United States.]

2. Plants

Wild Flowers and Ferns

_Flower in the crannied wall,
I pluck you out of the crannies;
Hold you here, root and all, in my hand.
Little flower--but if I could understand
What you are, root and all, and all in all,
I should know what God and man is._
--_Tennyson._

Do you know the earliest spring flower in yo