The following sections of this BookRags Literature Study Guide is offprint from Gale's For Students Series: Presenting Analysis, Context, and Criticism on Commonly Studied Works: Introduction, Author Biography, Plot Summary, Characters, Themes, Style, Historical Context, Critical Overview, Criticism and Critical Essays, Media Adaptations, Topics for Further Study, Compare & Contrast, What Do I Read Next?, For Further Study, and Sources.
(c)1998-2002; (c)2002 by Gale. Gale is an imprint of The Gale Group, Inc., a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. Gale and Design and Thomson Learning are trademarks used herein under license.
The following sections, if they exist, are offprint from Beacham's Encyclopedia of Popular Fiction: "Social Concerns", "Thematic Overview", "Techniques", "Literary Precedents", "Key Questions", "Related Titles", "Adaptations", "Related Web Sites". (c)1994-2005, by Walton Beacham.
The following sections, if they exist, are offprint from Beacham's Guide to Literature for Young Adults: "About the Author", "Overview", "Setting", "Literary Qualities", "Social Sensitivity", "Topics for Discussion", "Ideas for Reports and Papers". (c)1994-2005, by Walton Beacham.
All other sections in this Literature Study Guide are owned and copyrighted by BookRags, Inc.
Plants are photosynthetic multicellular eukaryotes, well-separated evolutionarily from photosynthetic prokaryotes such as the cyanobacteria. Three lineages of photosynthetic eukaryotes are recognized: 1) green plants and green algae, with chlorophylls a and b and with carotenoids, including beta-carotene, as accessory pigments ; 2) red algae, having chlorophylls a and d, with phycobilins as accessory pigments; and 3) brown algae, golden algae, and diatoms, with chlorophylls a and c and accessory pigments that include fucoxanthin.
Plants are differentiated from algae based on their exclusive multicellularity and their adaption to life on land. However, these two groups are so closely related that defining their differences is often harder than identifying their similarities. Fungi, often considered to be plantlike and historically classified with plants, are not close relatives of plants; rather, they appear to be closely related to animals, based on numerous molecular and biochemical features. Fossil evidence indicates that plants first invaded the land approximately 450 million years ago. The major groups of living land plants are liverworts, hornworts, and mosses (collectively termed bryophytes); lycophytes, ferns, and horsetails (collectively pteridophytes); and five lineages of seed plants: cycads, Ginkgo, gnetophytes, conifers (gymnosperms), and flowering plants (angiosperms).
Algae; Anatomy of Plants; Angiosperms; Bryophytes; Endosymbiosis; Fungi; Gymnosperms; Pigments.
Raven, Peter H., Ray F. Evert, and Susan E. Eichhorn. Biology of Plants, 6th ed. New York: W. H. Freeman and Company, 1999.