36 THE NATURE-STUDY OF PLANTS 
also be sown in a border, giving ample space to each, 
and the results should be compared subsequently. 
At the start there is no visible reason why any par- 
ticular one of the batch should win or why the others 
should perish, but in the absence of more precise 
knowledge, the victory must be attributed to the better 
constitution and greater vigour of the conquerors. 
Overcrowding, especially in the seedling stage, is 
fraught with many most undesirable possibilities, 
such as insufficient nutrition which weakens the 
constitution, lowers vitality, and induces damping 
off, and those which come off worst for fresh air, 
light, root-room, and nourishment will be the first 
to succumb to disease. Their death, however, will 
ease the strain upon the survivors, and so the struggle 
will go on until one of them wins or more than one of 
them remain so evenly matched that they have to 
share the root-room and other things that are essential 
for growth and maturity. Thus it comes about that 
in mutual competition the most effective weapon 
of the seedling is a good constitution, and it is pretty 
much the same for our own children too. 
Impartial Nature knows no favourites. Now, the 
difficulty of framing a scientific definition of that or of 
any other word does not prevent us from understanding 
its significance clearly or from knowing quite well 
what we mean by it; and by Nature I mean the all- 
controlling Spirit of God at work in this world, of all 
things the most impossible for human definition. 
I have subscribed to the belief that all things work 
together for good, and despite the facts revealed, for 
example to the student of parasitism, which certainly 
do not suggest optimism or even unobtrusive happiness, 
Nature, amid the diversity of her operations, never 
