LIFE-HISTORY OF THE HERB ROBERT 109 
- be swept in plenty from the plant in the places where 
it is to be found at all. Nevertheless we must admit 
that our friend has managed to protect itself with 
remarkable success. 
There is another danger, however, with which all 
living things have to reckon, and it is that of being 
crowded out in the struggle for existence. 
The mutual competition between the plants grow- 
ing at the foot of an English hedge is so terrible 
that, if one did not know better, one would shudder 
to think of the host of seedlings that die off in early 
infancy. 
The Herb Robert is no exception to the rule: 
its defensive weapon is its spreading crown of leaves, 
which darkens the space that it covers and so prevents 
» the seedlings of other plants establishing themselves 
there ; but this does not obviate the danger of being 
swamped by larger rampant and quickly growing 
competitors hard by. On one small spot in my 
garden where early in the year I counted twenty-three 
seedlings there was only one plant by mid-October : 
all the rest had died, not because they had been eaten, 
but because they had been overshadowed by their 
neighbours and had perished from want of room. 
It is very much a matter of the time that germination 
commences ; if a seed starts in the autumn and makes 
its three or four leaves before the cold sets in the 
chances of survival are good. The early spring 
seedlings do not grow rapidly, and those which start 
at that season, have but a poor prospect, whereas 
those which come last of all in March or April or later 
are almost certain to be crowded out. 
This reminds me of a small point of some interest : 
the Herb Robert is described in our Floras as an 
