SOME REMARKABLE WAYS OF PLANTS 175 



But beyond and behind and throughout all this, as 

 we well know, dwells ever One Supreme, '* The Lord 

 and Giver of Life," — 



"the Power 

 That rules all action and all tides of thought, 

 And all the secret courses of the Stars." ^ 



One matter, much discussed during recent years, 

 has not yet been mentioned. This is the extraordinary 

 fulness and abundance of Vegetable Life on Earth, to- 

 gether with the thought of conflict, and of the incessant 

 struggle for existence. In other words, the way in 

 which each seed, each plantlet, has to fight for very life, 

 and can only prevail by getting the better of others in 

 the strife. 



No portion of Earth's surface can support more than 

 a certain amount of vegetation ; and where one seed or 

 one plant succeeds, many others are bound to fail. 



To some extent such a condition of things is inevit- 

 able. Where hundreds of seeds have ripened, only a 

 limited number of them can become healthy and well- 

 grown plants. Many must fail, from lack of room and 

 of food. 



If we think once more of the acorns seen on a single 

 Oak, we shall realise how few of them will ever become 

 large trees. At any particular place only enough food 

 is found in the soil to keep going a definite number of 

 Oaks ; and where one survives others must die. 



Certain writers, seeing this vividly, have spoken in a 



or less on the same level ? No ; for Man is not body and soul 

 only ; he is Bodj^ Soul, and Spirit. Man alone was made " in the 

 Imap:e of God." 

 ^ Alfred Noyes. 



