CHAPTER VIII. 



" DEFENCE, NOT DEFIANCE." 



This well-known motto of our volunteers has long 

 been adopted as a vital principle in the vegetable 

 kingdom, and numerous plant peculiarities can only 

 be properly understood when we bear this in mind. 

 True, some of the lower forms of plant -life have 

 assumed a parasitic life even upon animals, such as 

 the Bacteria, etc., and may consequently be regarded 

 as predaceous. The so-called " carnivorous plants," 

 also, have turned the tables upon the ancient enemies 

 of their kind ; but they are quite exceptional in 

 their structures and habits. 



All animals, except the purely carnivorous kinds, 

 live upon plants. Even carnivorous and insecti- 

 vorous animals and birds are dependent on their 

 prey feeding upon vegetation. It is a marvel how 

 plants have been able to withstand this universal and 

 continued assault — root, stem, leaves, and fruit, all are 

 partaken of. Individual growth and specific pro- 

 pagation are interfered with at every stage of their 



