PERSONALITY OF PLANTS 
ted its seed over every island in the group. 
From a delicate, hand-manicured, potted plant 
of the greenhouse, it shot up into a tough, and 
belligerent swashbuckler a fathom tall, that 
marched in serried ranks over the landscape, 
crushing beneath it and choking to death all 
the sweet native grasses, shrubs and flowers. 
In the lower forests, it became jungle, in the 
open, it became jungle only more so. It was 
practically impenetrable to man. The cattle- 
men wailed and vainly fought withit. It grew 
faster and spread faster than they could grub it 
out.” | 
Then ensued a battle royal between man and 
plant. The man called to his aid hosts of in- 
sect mercenaries. “Some of these predacious 
enemies of the Lantana ate and sucked and 
sapped. Others made incubators out of the 
stems, tunnelled and undermined the flower- 
clusters, hatched maggots in the hearts of the 
seeds, or covered the leaves with suffocating 
fungoid growths. Thus simultaneously at- 
tacked in front and rear and flank, above and 
below, inside and out, the all-conquering swash- 
buckler recoiled. ‘Today, the battle is almost 
[54] 
