204 LIVING PLANTS 



ing that the chief reason for living is to die 

 that another may live, and that other must 

 in turn do the same; thus true fruition, com- 

 l^lete realization, is never attained, but is 

 always in the unreachable future. 



A misconception prevails, it appears to me, 

 in regard to the place that death and repro- 

 duction hold in the economy of the world, 

 which has thrown us upon a wrong track. 

 We ma\' safely assume that much of the di- 

 versity in the mode and form in which life is 

 presented to us has resulted from the changea- 

 bleness and uncertainty of external conditions. 

 If moisture, warmth and food could be, and 

 especially if the\^ had always been, supplied 

 to ever\^ organism in uniform and ample 

 amount, the struggle for existence would pre- 

 sent altogether another phase from its present 

 da> aspect. 



If the moisture of air and soil were of ap- 

 proximateh^ unvarying percentage from day 

 to day, and year to 3^ear, and if warmth were 

 maintained at the genial glow of a summer 

 day without interruption, the provisions 

 against drouth and cold, shown in seeds, 

 tubers, bulbs, resting spores, sclerotia and 

 similar protective devices, would be largely 

 purposeless, and could not long persist, in 

 fact might never have developed. Under such 

 favorable conditions for continuous growth, 



