WOOD-CRAFT. 39 



I have chosen the heading of the present chapter 

 to express certain special devices adopted by the 

 higher plants to grow, escape enemies, and pro- 

 pagate their kind. 



The giants of the forest have won in the battle 

 of life by sheer strength and bulk. Their huge 

 trunks lift the branches on high, and enable the 

 leaves to hang out like green banners in the sun- 

 shine and the breeze. There is even a competition 

 among the trees, individuals as well as species, 

 which shall grow tallest. Who that has wandered 

 through an unkept British forest has not been 

 struck by the keen struggle going on among the 

 trees for place and height ? Not even in our over- 

 populated cities and towns are we so smitten with the 

 fact that the weakest goes to the wall ! One cannot 

 explore a primitive wood without feeling that plants 

 are as selfish and greedy as animals, not even except- 

 ing man ! 



The dense shade, which usually prevails in old 

 woods and forests, allows but a scanty existence to 

 those kinds of plants which have not been fortunate 

 enough to accumulate sufficient woody tissue, to 

 build up their stems into tree-trunks. The carbonic 

 acid of the adjacent atmosphere is seized upon, first- 

 hand, by the outstretched stratum of foliage overhead ; 

 and even if there were more of it, the umbrageous 

 canopy prevents that admission of sunlight which, 

 as we have already seen, is necessary to the stimu- 



