I found this:
All vehicles, cars, trucks etc. have springs that the vehicle rides on, whether it's a coil spring, leaf spring or even a tension bar. Most of the time there is one spring per wheel. With coil springs on the front of the car, the spring is between the upper and lower control arms. And to allow the spring to work, a shock absorber is installed in the center of the spring. It is connected to the frame on the top and the lower control arm on the bottom.
A car that has struts uses all the same components. The biggest difference is that on cars with shocks the spring and the shocks are separate. With struts the spring is mounted on top of the shock as one unit and is called a strut.
On this site:
http://www.cardogz.com/columns/auto/...998_08_31.html