112 PLANT LIFE 
The narrow diameter of the stem is incom- 
patible with waste or inefficiency in any of 
its parts, whilst by its unsuitability to act 
as an organ of storage, the obscuring effects 
of subsidiary functions are comparatively 
eliminated. 
But there is always a danger in an appeal 
to metaphor, and the suggestion conveyed in 
the term compromise ought not to be accepted 
as containing any definite explanation of the 
facts, for it implicitly begs the whole ques- 
tion as to whether the plant can adapt itself 
to the exigencies of a particular environment ; 
it rather indicates, without actually giving, an 
affirmative reply. But it may well be that 
the question is to be answered in a totally 
different way, and that what strikes us at 
first sight as an obvious “ adaptation ” may 
be still better described as an “ adaptedness ” 
brought about by causes and conditions not 
at all directly connected with the circum- 
stances under which they are so clearly 
appropriate. In other words, the power of 
direct adaptation may be (and probably is) 
a very small part of the whole problem of the 
fitness so generally to be discerned between 
the plant (or animal) and its natural 
surroundings. 
It is a remarkable circumstance that many 
of the climbers, especially the more advanced 
ones, exhibit a considerable degree of anoma- 
lous structure in their stems, and especially 
in their main stem. A large number of 
