Plants are very important living things. Life could not go on if there were no plants. This is because plants can make food from air, water and sunlight. Animals and man cannot make food from air, water and sunlight. Animals get their food by eating plants and other animals. Therefore animals and man need plants in order to live. This is why we find that there are so many plants around us.
If you look carefully at the plants around you, you will find that there are two kinds of plants: flowering plants and non-flowering(不开花的) plants.
Flowering plants can make seeds(种子). The seeds are protected by the fruits. Some fruits have one seed, some have two, three or four, and some have many seeds. But a few fruits have no seeds at all. An example of a fruit without seeds is the banana fruit.
Most non-flowering plants do not grow from seeds. They grow from spores(孢子). Spores are very, very small. Some spores are so small and light that they can float in the air. We may say that spores are quite the same as seeds. When these spores fall on wet and shady(阴凉的) places, they usually grow into new plants.
