176 THE GARDEN OF EARTH 



melancholy key about plants as selfishly fighting for 

 themselves, and ruthlessly trampling out the lives of 

 their companions. Much has been written as to the 

 " fierce struggle " going on, and the many that perish, 

 neglected and forgotten failures. 



That is not, however, a very happy way of looking 

 on the matter, and it may be viewed from another 

 standpoint. 



We need not blame the plants which succeed, since we 

 ourselves imperatively need them to work for us, to 

 purify our atmosphere, to prepare our daily food. And 

 they have to carry out these duties, to which they are 

 called. 



As for the seeming failures — the unused seeds, the 

 wasted acorns, the dying plantlets — they are not really 

 wasted or useless or failures. They have their simple 

 tasks to perform, even though they can never add to 

 the number of our stately forest -trees. 



Sometimes they serve as food for man. Sometimes 

 they serve as food for animals. Sometimes they help to 

 enrich the soil in which more successful growths will 

 find a home ; and so they end by becoming food for future 

 generations of Vegetable Life. 



And if many multitudes of these — of pollen-grains, 

 of seeds, of plantlets — have to fulfil such humble ends, 

 have to give up their little lives for others, dying un- 

 noticed and unknown, instead of becoming what they 

 seemed to have been made for, and what they set out to 

 be — neither they nor we have any right to complain. 

 It is all part of the same great Service ! Many kinds of 

 plants, and many types of service, are needed for such a 

 " Garden " as our Earth. 



