CHAPTER IV. 



WOOD-CRAFT. 



The members of the vegetable kingdom exist amidst 

 a mutual competition compared with which the worry 

 of human life is a state of rest. This battle for 

 existence goes on in addition to the attacks of 

 numerous enemies of all kinds, which prey upon 

 plants. Consequently, we cannot be surprised to 

 find plants adopting devices to gain a livelihood as 

 well as to escape enemies. 



Such an adaptation on the part of plants to their 

 environment has been going on through all those 

 periods of geological time that have passed away 

 since vegetable life first appeared on the earth. 

 The modifications and specialisations of terrestrial 

 vegetation have been increasing in complexity and 

 completeness, and the vast variety met with in exist- 

 ing species of plants are the results of this long-con- 

 tinued and unbroken series of adaptations. Plants 

 have now attained to a higher degree of mechanical 

 specialisation than they ever before experienced. 



