PROTECTION 25 
in the vegetable world. We shall come to the question 
of Rest later on ; but when we talk about going to sleep 
we imply losing consciousness, and we can hardly 
talk about plants doing that. 
What is known as the sleep of plants, the closing 
up, for example, of the leaves of the White Clover, and 
the flowers of the Daisy at night, is really a device 
which affords protection from cold and dew. If we 
keep our eyes open we shall soon find a great many 
instances of this sort of thing in a great many different 
kinds of plants, and when we come across them we 
must think of them, not as sleep, but as a protection 
against chill and damp. 
(b) Living things of other kinds 
There is a good deal to be said on this subject. In 
our own country civilization has abolished the danger 
of attack from wild animals at any rate, though we 
still suffer sometimes from small insects and from such 
fearful scourges as the tiny organisms which we call 
germs and which produce diphtheria, small-pox, con- 
sumption, and other terrible evils. Our chief protection 
against them is a healthy, clean, wholesome life and the 
advance of medical science. We look to our religion 
and doctors to show us how to live so as to avoid 
disease and to cure it when we are unfortunately 
victimized. 
Now, one of the chief dangers to which plants are 
exposed is that of being eaten alive; we must remember 
that they supply the food for the whole of the animal 
world, so it comes about that they must be adequately 
protected, not from ever being eaten at all, but from 
being exterminated or reduced too greatly in numbers, 
for if that were to happen animal life as well as our 
