I 



The YixJETAnLF, Enk.mies of Mankind. "7 



certain associations of plants which cover vast stretches of 

 grouiid, and are of no obvious use to anyone. No part of tlie 

 world is free from enemies of the kind. Here we have the peat 

 l>og, Sphagnum. Another is the prickly pear in South Africa. 

 In Queensland there are vast areas covered by the Brigalow 

 Scrub, Acacia Narpaphylla. Even worse is the Spinifex — so- 

 called — not the botanists' true Spinifex, which is a harmless and 

 useful grass, used to bind and fix the drifting sand, but Triodia 

 pungens et irritans. The stift', hard, and spiny leaves make 

 tracts of the couutr}- almost impassable, and indirectlj' have 

 caused the death of many explorers. Another similar grass — 

 Fertuca Alpcstris — is a pest in the Southern Alps. In the first 

 stages of man's progress the forest and swamp were his deadly 

 enemies. Even now there are enormous areas of the world 

 forest clad, especially in Africa. Our own country was once to 

 a large extent in the same condition, but the remains of the 

 Caledonian forest are too much altered by the progress of 

 agriculture and the continual cutting down for firewood, and 

 other useful purposes, to enable us to form any accurate idea of 

 what the forest meant to our ancestors. Hence it is obvious 

 that as man develops and multiplies, the forest or most of it, at 

 least, must fall, just as it has fallen in Britain. Yet here we 

 again come to the curious blend of good and evil. Without 

 forest on the hills to hold, suck up, and restrain the rainfall, we 

 should have on all the low grounds periods of destructive fiuod.s, 

 varied by other j)eriods of still more destructive drought, and for 

 us who live in towns the glimpses of the woodland and wild 

 nature are an absolute necessity. Morally and spiritually, as 

 well as physically, it is necessary to go occa-sionally to the desert 

 to recognise on what our life depends, to see the beauty which is 

 so infinitely more .satisfying than the strong structures of cities, 

 and to .sympathise with our relations beyond the .seas. 



A paper by Dr Cliinnock on an " Origin of the iJunic 

 Aljihabet " was read. 



