Co-operation of Plant Life 



the case. On the other hand, there have been and now are 

 just as fierce struggles going on in the vegetable kingdom as 

 there are in the animal kingdom so far as a survival of 

 the fittest is concerned. The law of the jungle is no less 

 merciful than the contest that is constantly going on for 

 advantage and supremacy in plant life. The roots of all 

 plants are pushing out, moving and struggling for moisture 

 and the life giving substances which they are gathering from 

 the soil to pass on to the parent body, while, at the same time, 

 the leaves are drinking in body building elements from the 

 air and sun. If these root fingers come in contact with the 

 root fingers of some rival plant whose quest is for the same 

 life giving substances, the root fingers are entwined in a 

 stranglehold of death for the weaker of the two. While 

 these struggles for mastery are going on unseen beneath the 

 soil, the upper branches are pushing, crowding and reaching 

 higher for the other life giving substances from the air and 

 sunshine. The contest is not always awarded to the one 

 possessing the greatest strength of body, but instead, the 

 cunning intelligence of the weaker plant, such as the creeping 

 vines, sometimes overcomes the superior strength of the 

 stronger rival. Thus the endless struggle for the survival 

 of the fittest plant has gone on from the beginning and it 

 will continue to do so throughout the future centuries. 



The cooperative effort of plant life has furnished food, 

 clothing and shelter for the animal kingdom without which 

 no animal life could exist. Just as animal life has advanced 

 in gradual and successive steps through long periods of time 

 from the amoeba to man, so has plant life developed from 

 the algae to mosses, from mosses to ferns, from ferns to 



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