THE STRUGGLE FOR LIFE IN THE FOREST.* 
By JAMES RODWAY. 
Guiana is, above everything else, famous for its varied and rampant 
forms of vegetable life. It is a country of magnificent timber trees, 
elegant palms, wonderful creeping, climbing, and scrambling vines, 
enormous arums, and stately grasses. Allof these seem conscious that 
they have to struggle for existence and thatthe fittest only will sur- 
vive. Here we have no forest of one species—in which there appears 
to be something like combination, but every plant is an individual, and 
as such strives with all its might to get ahead of its neighbor, no mat- 
ter how. Its whole aim and end is to obtain a share of the bright sun- 
light which is so plenteously bestowed, but nevertheless is so hard to 
get at. As long as the individual succeeds it does not care what 
becomes of the others; “everyone for himself and the sunlight for him 
who outstrips the others” appears to be their motto. 
Myriads of seeds are distributed in every direction; some are eaten 
by birds, others by quadrupeds and monkeys, while the vast majority 
are washed away by floods or die in the first stage of babyhood. A 
hundred may germinate under one tree, but what poor, puny things they 
are! They try their best to raise themselves toward the light above their 
heads, but without a share of that light they have no strength. Their 
seed leaves are almost colorless, while their stems are so fragile that they 
often break off by their own weight. One by one they fall and die. 
Here and there however, in some place where a few rays of light have 
succeeded in penetrating the canopy of foliage, one of them becomes 
strong enough to get over its first difficulties. Then it uses up all its 
strength to push its way up and up until it arrives at the top. It does 
not waste its energy by spreading in any way, either in the stem or by 
branching, but straight and thin as a walking stick at last forces its 
way into the sunlight. Now comes a transformation; like a giant forcing 
his way through a crowd it pushes out a branch in this direction and 
another in that until it succeeds in elbowing itself into a good place. 
Except at night there is no rest in the tropical forest. The struggle 
goes on all through the year, being perhaps only a little less in the dry 
season. No nice winter’s sleep is possible. Man and the higher ani- 
*From “ Timehri,” Journal of the Royal Agricultural and Commercial Society of Brit- 
ish Guiana. June, 1891; vol. Vv (new series), pp. 13-33. 
H. Mis. 334, pt. 1——22 337 
