THE RIGHT TO LIVE 195 



jDlant to the animal, the alluring quicksands 

 of bare analogy must be sedulously avoided. 

 Turning from the dramaticall^v tragic phases 

 of plant life, let us look at the everyday condi- 

 tions of existence. Two prominent factors in 

 plant as well as in animal life, are the rate of 

 increase and the supply of food. In regard to 

 these some simple calculations will be helpful, 

 although the3^ ma}' prove a cabala that will 

 disenchant and spread before us a different 

 panorama from the quiet, pastoral repose, 

 which we confidentU' anticipate when we 



" Go forth under the open sky, and list 

 To Nature's teachings." 



Linnaeus computed the progeny of an an- 

 nual plant, from which only two seeds grew 

 into plants the second 3^ear, and from each of p .. < , 

 these two plants two others sprung up the of increase 

 third year, and so on for twenty years. This 

 is a very low rate of increase, yet at the end 

 of the second decade the one original plant 

 would be represented by a million offspring. 

 A computation made by Huxley gives a some- 

 what clearer illustration of the real tendency 

 of plant life. By the terms of his supposition 

 fifty seeds are able to make a successful 

 growth from each plant of the preceding 3xar, 

 and a plant for full development is permitted 

 to have one square foot of ground. Now es- 

 timating that the whole land area of the 



