616 The Outline of Science 



It is always useful to recognise similarity in the midst of 

 difference, but it is a mistake to exaggerate this so as to obscure 

 significant divergence. It is of the very nature of plants to be 

 sluggish. It is bound up with their independent mode of nutri- 

 tion. They do not need to seek out their raw materials ; they need 

 only absorb the constantly renewed supplies of water and salts 

 brought to the roots by the slow draining in the soil, and of carbon 

 dioxide flowing over the leaves in the currents of the air. While 

 the animal, essentially a hunter, has advanced to an ever-increas- 

 ing perfection of co-ordinated movement, the plant has sunk into 

 torpor. There are exceptions among the lower groups; many 

 primitive algae swim actively, the sponge and the sea-anemone are 

 sedentary ; but the true contrast between the two kingdoms is seen 

 in the squirrel romping through the boughs of the impassive 

 beech. The distinction between active animal and sluggish plant 

 is fundamental. 



The Tactics of Plants 



Plants live their lives much as animals live theirs : every plant 

 is adapted to its particular station in life, and in its adaptations we 

 see the outcome of the same struggle for existence and the same 

 fundamental vital qualities (growing, multiplying, answering 

 back, and so on) as we see in animals. There is the same competi- 

 tion, the same mutual aid where mutual aid pays. The plant, like 

 the animal, shows the same self-preservative instincts; the same 

 factors of environment and heredity determine the individual life. 

 There are new departures new novelties among pansies, as we 

 see among pigeons. Plants multiply; on the whole they may be 

 said to inherit the character of their parents ; the same continuity 

 of linkages as in animals binds one generation to another. In the 

 plant world as in the animal world Nature cares more for the race 

 than for the individual. Thus we get in a general way the impres- 

 sion of plants as genuinely living creatures. 



Plants, like animals, employ their own peculiar tactics in 



