PART II THE PLANT IN ITS 

 ENVIRONMENT 



CHAPTER XXVI 

 WHERE PLANTS GROW 



326. ENVIRONMENT. The circumstances and surround- 

 ings in which an organism lives constitute its environ- 

 ment. The environment comprises effects of soil, mois- 

 ture, temperature, altitude, sunlight, competition with 

 animals and other plants, and the like. An organism is 

 greatly influenced by the environment or conditions in 

 which it lives. Not only must a plant live and grow and 

 multiply its kind, but it must adapt itself to its environ- 

 ment. 



327. The particular place in which a plant grows is 

 known as its habitat (i. e., its "habitation")- The habi- 

 tat of a given plant may be a swamp, hill, rock, sand 

 plain, forest, shore. The plant inhabitants of any region 

 are known collectively as its flora. Thus we speak of the 

 flora of a meadow or a hill or a swamp, or of a country. 

 The word is also used for a book describing the plants of 

 a region (as in Part IV). 



328. PLANTS GROW WHERE THEY MUST. The plant is 

 not able to choose its environment. It has no volition. 

 Its seeds are scattered : only a few of them fall in pleas- 

 ant places. The seeds make an effort to grow even 

 though the places are not favorable ; and so it happens 



(197) 



