STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE 1467 



truly said to struggle with each other which shall 

 get food and live. But a plant on the edge of a 

 desert is said to struggle for life against the drought, 

 though more properly it should be said to be de- 

 pendent on the moisture. A plant which annually 

 produces a thousand seeds, of which only one on an 

 average comes to maturity, may be more truly said 

 to struggle with the plants of the same and other 

 kinds which already clothe the ground. The mistle- 

 toe is dependent on the apple and a few other trees, 

 but can only in a far-fetched sense be said to strug- 

 gle with these trees, for, if too many of these para- 

 sites grow on the same tree, it languishes and dies. 

 But several seedling mistletoes, growing close to- 

 gether on the same branch, may more truly be said 

 to struggle with each other. As the mistletoe is dis- 

 seminated by birds, its existence depends on them; 

 and it may metaphorically be said to struggle with 

 other fruit-bearing plants, in tempting the birds to 

 devour and thus disseminate its seeds. In these 

 several senses, which pass into each other, I use for 

 convenience' sake the general term of Struggle for 

 Existence. 



A struggle for existence inevitably follows from 

 the high rate at which all organic beings tend to 

 increase. Every being, which during its natural 

 lifetime produces several eggs or seeds, must suffer 

 destruction during some period of its life, and during 

 some> season or occasional year, otherwise, on the 

 principle of geometrical increase, its numbers would 

 quickly become so inordinately great that no country 

 could support the product. Hence, as more indi- 



