RIVALRY OF PLANTS 171 



are the dianthus plants that did not learn to 

 advertise to the bee and where are the desert 

 cactus plants that could not protect themselves 

 with thorns? 



On and on we go, one step backward some- 

 times, then two steps forward marking time 

 awhile, then onward with a spurt the pear tree, 

 the dianthus, the cactus plants, and we each 

 individual among us a little different from the 

 rest, each with a separate combination of old 

 environment stored within us, finding always 

 an infinity of new environment to bring it out; 

 growing up together, the pear trees, the dian- 

 thus, the cactus plants and we, all of us depend- 

 ing on the others, and each of us playing his 

 separate part in the march of adaptation. 



On and on we go, because of Infinite Vari- 

 ation. 



And so, from whatever viewpoint we approach 

 the study of plants whether with an eager eye 

 to the future and the past, or whether with an 

 eye, opened only a slit, to see simply the things 

 we can touch and feel, we find evidences of adap- 

 tation made possible through variation. 



The violet, responding to kindness, became a 

 pansy. 



The pear, responding to racial tastes, adapted 

 itself to the Orientals and to us. 



